Transformers GE
by NatsumeRyu
Summary: This story follows a couple groups of mechs after the Mission Incident as they come to grips with their role on Earth and with the humans and Cybertronians.
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

Transformers: Generation Earth

* * *

"…Thank you for life;  
Never taking any breath or any second  
For granted, I will fail, but I will try…"  
- "Saturday" - Olivia The Band

_For the glory of the Most High_

* * *

Prequel

"Oh, Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons."  
-"Transformers Theme" - Mutemath

"Sam, get to the building!" Ironhide called, falling from the damage caused by Starscream's most recent hit-and-run.  
Sam Witwicky ran, full-tilt, along the street, towards the white building with statues at the top. There, the Allspark would be taken away by the crew in the Black Hawk Helicopters. At least, that was the plan.  
Behind him, Megatron came careening down from the sky. At the last second he transformed from his jet mode to land. He called out, "Give me that Cube, boy!" and began running along the street as well, tossing an SUV out of the way while resuming his pursuit.  
Sam continued to run away from Megatron, towards the above-mentioned building. The battle had not yet reached this area, so here cars were still moving along the street. Now, though, they swerved and screeched to stop, some in awe or fear of Megatron, others avoiding the people swarming out of buildings. In an effort to avoid a taxi, Sam ran into an Escalade, the women inside antagonizing over the possible dent or scratch he might have caused to their ride. Sam rolled off the car, hitting the ground. The Cube, still within his grasp, hit the ground as well, and a blue wave emanated from it.  
Nearby, an X Box, Mt. Dew Dispenser, and even the Escalade Sam hit, came to life…

* * *

Chapter 1: Awakening

"We're the future can't you see,  
The flame that burns inside of me….  
And I will rise."  
- "Gasoline Dreams" - Seven Story Ruin

* * *

A minute later and a few miles away, that blue wave perspicaciously shot across the ground past the homes in the suburbs of Mission City. Its now dimmed glow brightened for a moment as it worked its way past one of these homes. Both of the trucks in this driveway were overcome with shining, blue electricity, but only one transformed, while simultaneously a crashing sound tore from inside the garage. The huge 24 foot or-so-tall robot outside reached on its back and pulled out a huge gun, the barrel of which consisted mostly of the wheels of the Silverado. It paused, however, as the garage to the home in front of it opened. The transformed Silverado knelt down, looking inside. Its eyes - pinpricks of light upon its dark, metal visage - brightened once they reached the outline of a teen just out of the doorway that led from the garage to the house it connected to.

* * *

-o-

I rubbed my eyes; a loud but brief bzzt noise, along with a crashing sound woke me up from where I had been sleeping on the couch. I wanted to go back to sleep, but had to verify the noises were harmless. So I went in the garage, and the worst possible scene met my eyes. Ok, maybe not the worst, the house wasn't on fire, but there was a huge hole in the roof. My parents would kill me when they got back from their trip. What was curious about this hole though, wasn't that it broke into the attic, but that the roof above that was fine. It was also almost directly above the only car in the garage. My car. A red 1994 Camaro that had been a gift (when it was brand-new) to mom from dad, but now that mom had the Silverado, and I was old enough, I got it. Well, so much for cleaning the car not two days ago. It was now covered in debris, dust, and pink foamy insulation... Anyway, nothing could have crashed down from the sky, since the attic roof was fine, but what could've caused the roof to collapse like that? The garage door opening mechanism was outside the radius of the hole by about a foot or two in either direction, so, hoping for more evidence, I returned quickly to the door of the house and pressed the button on the wall to open the garage. Why is it that something always happens right after you clean your car? I thought exasperatedly.  
The garage opened as slowly as it ever did, and as it did so, I noticed an unfamilar piece of machinery sitting on the pavement outside. The door continued upward and I perceived more about it: at the base of the ever-more-revealed cylindrical cluster of metal pieces lay something resembling a hand. It was proportionate to the rest of the metal, so that had the many metallic bits and pieces been a uniform part, it could have been the arm of Japan's newest robot to hit local news. It had three fingers and a thumb. I began taking another step towards the metal thing, but stopped once the garage door reached about head's height. Another, larger, bit of machinery came into view, this one suspended from a point I couldn't see. Slowly, as the door kept moving, two red points appeared, and I concluded that they were eyes, and the suspended piece of metal parts was a face. And that the hand I originally saw was connected to an arm. Which was connected to a torso. Which was connected to this face. It was a very big robot.  
Finally, the garage stopped at its pinnacle, and a pregnant silence followed.  
"You…?" the robot said, barely audible and raising his left arm (which was visually nothing like the right; it looked alot more like a huge machine gun than anything else) to point slightly at me. Its voice was not even close to what a robot (or in my mind, a computer) sounded like when it "spoke". It was more like listening to a human and a wolf trying to speak at the same time, because a growl was deeply resonant beneath the lone word. After it spoke, the robot then turned its 'head' away from me, as if reminiscing. Then, shortly afterward, it spoke again, though this time unintelligibly. What I heard was, "I wool great thumb" (but all as one word). I couldn't even pronounce it. At least, not as fast or as smoothly as he did. Immediately after speaking for a second time, the mechanical creature got up from kneeling on the ground, and turned to the street which was in front of the house. It walked out to the road, each footfall a loud thud, and a crack appearing in the concrete and asphalt wherever its foot decided to rest. Upon reaching the center of the road, it put it's gun-like left arm on its back, where the barrel stayed as it pulled the claw holding it away. So its left arm was actually a really big claw? Creepy. Next, he looked back at the garage, and, speaking again in the English language, said, "Stop pestering me, Camshaft."  
I looked at him oddly, and opened my mouth to retort- but my car beat me to it. "Just tell me your name, at least," 'Camshaft' said. Its voice had much less of a growl in it, so much so that it was almost nonexistent compared to the robot's. The tone also wasn't quite so deep. Beyond noticing this, I was dumbfounded.  
"Seether," the robot replied indignantly.  
After a moment's more pause, and after it had apparently verified that my car wasn't going to ask any more questions (as crazy as that sounds), the robot sort of bent backwards. It looked like it was going to lay down, but, before I knew it, it wasn't a robot anymore. All the parts had moved and shifted, and I was now looking at my mom's truck. The tan-ish 2004 Silverado, it's diesel engine running as obnoxiously as ever, drove off down the street.  
I ran out to the driveway, hand outstretched. What the? What just happened? How do you explain this to your parents? 'I'm sorry mom, dad, I woke up and there was this hole in the garage, and then your truck drove away.' 'No, it wasn't stolen; it just left.' Yeeeah. They'd think I'm loopy. "This is not good," I mumbled to myself.  
"Where do you think he's going?" I recognized the voice as the one that came from my car. I turned back to the garage and looked at the Camaro.  
"Maybe I am going crazy," I said as Camshaft reversed out of the garage. I tested the name on my lips, "Camshaft."  
"Yea, Viktor?" it replied, stopping in front of me.  
"I don't like that name," I murmured, scrunching up my face. The car shifted uneasily on it's shocks, and i realized that statement could have been referring to either name, so I clarified. "Call me V," I said quickly.  
"You don't like your name?"  
I gave a noncommittal grunt.  
"You can call me Cam, by the way."  
"You don't like your name?" I asked.  
"No, Cam is just shorter," he replied.  
"I see." I said slowly. "Yea, either I'm going crazy, or I'm still asleep."

* * *

-o-

_Camshaft_  
"I'm sorry? What do you mean?" I asked. My attention wasn't fully on the spoken conversation, however, as I was keeping up a conversation electronically with Grill, the only other truck in the driveway of that property.  
Grill: :He thinks he is asleep.:  
Camshaft: :Why?:  
Grill: :Do you have any inkling as to where our sentience originated?:  
Camshaft: :No.:  
Grill: :Neither does he. A result of that is that he does not believe his eyes.:  
"Did I say that out loud?" V turned to me. "I guess it doesn't matter."  
"You're not asleep," I said. "Grill, tell him."  
Grill: :It would not help. It would probably scare him more.:  
Camshaft: :It would help- wait, he's afraid?:  
Grill: :When he finally accepts the reality of our existence, his bland, unresponsive demeanor will probably be replaced by one of fear.:  
"Grill-?" V asked.  
I ignored his question. "You're not afraid of me, are you?"  
"…No," he said slowly.  
"See, Grill? Just tell him."  
Camshaft: :See, Grill? Just tell him.:  
I sent the message both verbally and electronically to emphasize how important this was to me. I couldn't prove to V what was happening, but maybe Grill could.  
"Who is Grill?" V posed the question again.  
Grill: :Fine.:  
Grill transformed.

* * *

-o-

_Viktor_  
"I'm Grill," said the robot that was formerly my dad's truck - a 1968 faded red Ford F-250 custom. "And you aren't asleep; it's as Camshaft says."  
This machine's voice was sort of deep, and had a slight rumble behind it.  
"I can't believe this is happening!" I almost yelled, backpedaling and falling into the grass of our yard. I took several moments to compose myself, then asked in a steady voice, "You can't tell me this is real?"  
The Ford seemed a little annoyed in his response, "I just did, but that's not the point."  
Following that, it stepped over my Camaro, got down on its knees and came near to my eye level. I sat, stiff, where I had fallen on the grass. Grill then reached towards me, two-fingered hand held open. "How does one know something is real?" he asked. He grabbed a hold of me, and stood to his full height.  
I had to have been 20 feet off the ground, and it was hard to think when you felt like the bottom of your stomach had dropped out.  
How do you know anything is real? I finally questioned myself to get my mind off the height. Well, I definitely knew something wasn't real just because someone said it was, so, maybe, a feeling. What did you feel in real situations compared to dream? Fear? I opened my mouth to answer but stopped, fear was very prominent in nightmares (which this was quickly turning into). I shut my mouth again and closed my eyes, thinking, and trying very hard not to look down.  
"You do not know?" Grill finally asked. I could feel a little bit of a vibration in his hand when he spoke. It scared me because I at first thought it was him letting go.  
After a second more of deliberation, I shook my head.  
"Neither do I," He surprisingly answered. Something sort of like a chuckle came from him then; it was a lot like his voice saying "hahahaa" but with more rumble in it than usual. His eyes too, blue specks in his face, sort of shuttered closed for a few moments as he "laughed". It's hard to describe how bits of shifting metal can contort to look friendly, or smiling, but, somehow, he achieved it.  
I wasn't too comforted, however, since that question still loomed. "I wish I was sleeping, even though I already sleep too much," I admitted to myself.  
Grill observed me for a moment before speaking again, "Perhaps in the future you will not regret our creation today. And maybe then we will be able to answer the question of reality." He paused and let me think about it.  
I always came back to the same question when left to stew: what will mom say when she gets home?  
Grill continued before I could ask, though. "Camshaft, do you have anything to say?" He spoke over his shoulder to where Cam had been. I say "been" because yet another automaton had replaced a vehicle I was used to seeing.  
"Good job Grill," he said, "but did you have to go and confuse me in the process?" The voice was unmistakably my car's, as well as a few pieces clearly visible, such as the headlights.  
"Everything sentient faces that question," Grill said. "I just brought it to the forefront of your thoughts now. Does it disturb you?"  
"Yes," Cam replied; he was about 4 feet shorter than Grill when he stood at his full height, so he looked slightly up to the Ford. His build was also thinner. "Now, can I hold him?" he asked, a kiddish look overtaking his features.  
"What?!" I exclaimed, affronted.  
My car looked dubious. "You said you weren't afraid of me, so can't I hold you for a little while?"  
"Wha- Why?" I stammered, feeling my face get a bit red.  
"Why not?" It looked amused.  
Grill laughed again, "Why did you ask me?"  
"Because you were holding him!" Cam blurted out.  
"You should have asked Viktor first."  
Cam made a loud huffing noise while rolling his eyes. He folded his arms and turned his back to both Grill and myself, looking at the ground.  
I looked back at Grill. His bright eyes turned from Cam to me, and he winked at me. Apparently they were holding some sort silent conversation of their own.  
Finally, after almost a minute of silence, Cam turned back around to face us and asked defiantly, "V, can I please hold you?"  
I looked toward Grill - he shrugged. "Why?" I asked Cam again; I noticed I sounded a bit wary.  
"Uhh, err….Oh, I don't know," he finally managed to answer. "For the experience?" he put in, seemingly as an excuse.  
Like that was really explanatory- I frowned at it. He sort of lost some of his happy air after that, though, so I finally conceded. "Sure…," I grumbled.  
Cam quickly regained his lost excitement, putting both of his hands together nearly under Grill's, and almost under me. Grill began moving me the rest of the way, but stopped, and jerked a little bit, as a short, high-pitched whistling noise, followed shortly thereafter by a loud BOOM! interrupted the spectacle.  
"What was that?" Cam asked, looking in the direction the noise had come from. It was blocked by the two, tall pine-trees planted between ours and our neighbor's houses. Grill set me down, while Cam went out into the street to see clearly. Then Grill followed, and I ran to the asphalt as well. Smoke was rising from some home a few blocks away.  
"Maybe it's similar to whatever happened there," Grill pointed in a completely different direction, about 90 degrees left. The tall skyscrapers that marked the center of Mission city, and also the valley we were housed in, were having a few smoke problems of their own. As I stared, I noticed more and more things out of place. Several jets, presumably from Nellis AFB, were flying towards the skyscrapers. Jets NEVER flew over the main portion of the city, at least, never so low that they could collide with a building.  
"Noticed anything out of place?" Grill asked tentatively.  
"Jets never..." I paused as two of the jets apparently collided, but one pulled out from the ensuing flame and smoke safely, while the other dropped from the sky. "What just happened?"  
"You couldn't see it?" Cam asked hesitantly.  
"...too far away," I mumbled, still staring at the jets. Another fell from the sky.  
"The one that survived," Grill paused, as if unsure whether to continue or not, "-it was only for a second, he was so precise- it converted half-way to a bi-pedal mode."  
So it was a robot too. Was this happening all over the world?  
"I have to investigate this," Grill said to himself, quite seriously. He turned back to the dying plume of smoke which had originally grabbed our attention, and transformed.  
Cam was still watching the jets as they flew through the tall throng of buildings; he murmured to himself, "Why would…" but I couldn't hear the rest, because Grill's engine roared to life, and took him down the street.  
"I have to go too," I could soon hear him mumbling again, this time with his head hanging.  
"Are you ok?" I asked as he, too, turned toward the original smoke stack.  
"Yea, I'd feel better if you came, though," he gave me one last glance, with an attempt at a smile, before transforming back into a Camaro.

I walked over to the door he left open, and grasped both the hood and the door, with each of my hands. One last look back at the smoke rising out of the center of the city, and I finally got in, though, I admit, a bit hesitantly. How could I not go? I had to make sure the cars lived long enough to explain to my parents why one of the trucks was missing.

* * *

-o-

* * *

End Chapter One

* * *

"-o-" indicates a break (hopefully you figured that out though).

If a name is after "-o-" that means there was a change in perspective from one character to another. The name is the character we are switching to.  
Colons (:) before and after a sentence indicate the message is electronic. The name of the sender is always before the message (unless it is unavailable)

AFB Acronym; Air Force Base


	2. Chapter 2: Broadening Horizons

Chapter 2: Broadening Horizons

_"tgGt"_

* * *

"Put me in my place,  
Persuade me…"  
"Wake Up" - High Flight Society

* * *

_Grill_  
The neighborhood a few blocks away did not take long for me to find; smoke rose in thick black billows from demolished houses, leading me right to the source of the noise.  
In the middle of the street stood a thinly built transformer; his armor gleaming a beautifully bright blue in the sun. I could just catch the last half of a sentence as I parked a good distance away (enough so that I did not attract his attention) "…-as a work of art!" he exclaimed, gleeful though the wreckage was only a few meters to his right. He turned his attention from the other end of the street (where a green SUV drove away, similar to another that was parked across from the wreckage) to the burning remains of a home. It lay center to the total number of houses which were, at least to some degree, destroyed. As the mech stared into the flames, his voice took a decidedly devious turn, "I really couldn't've thanked him enough. I'll be sure to put that knowledge to good use."  
I was trying to observe rather than become part of the situation, so, unlike the blue transformer, I noticed curious humans slowly coming out of their homes. After four or five came out, however, a number of them began screaming, some running, and many staring inquisitively. The mech, finally, after hearing the screams, made some response to them. He turned his back to the flames, arms akimbo, and head held high. As he scanned the number of humans which were in his view, a wicked grin spread across his face. He seemed pleased at the attention.  
That couldn't last long, however, as one human came out with a gun and fired at the imposing blue giant. The bullet ricocheted off a plate of his armor, and he growled, "I'm sorry, did you want to play?" He took the few steps over and grabbed the stunned man who had shot at him. "That toy is hardly adequate." The man dropped his gun, and stared wide-eyed into the face of the transformer, whose lower arm and hand transformed into a pistol of sorts.  
How far was he willing to go? Somewhere I had to draw the line. "Cease!" I yelled, transforming. I ran over to his position, causing him to hold the man a bit further from himself as he looked up to me (this mech was about Camshaft's height).  
"Ah-" he said, at first surprised, probably at my presence, then, "greetings," which was distinctly annoyed, most likely from my interruption.  
"What are you doing?" I voiced my concern, gesturing to the human.  
"What do you care?" he growled at me angrily.  
"I care that, though the man desired to harm you, no damage was done, and you appear prepared to extinguish his life for that."  
"No damage was done?" he asked scathingly. Then he suddenly stopped what he was doing, and looked me up and down quickly. I remained still, and awaited his scrutiny. "Perhaps a piece of scrap like you wouldn't mind an addition to that collection of dents and scratches you have, but to someone like myself, with a nearly flawless hide, such an act cannot be tolerated."  
I did not mind the insult - I had been through a lot up to the point when I became self-aware, and they provided fond memories and experiences. "Perhaps," I retorted calmly, "you could do with a few more." Then, I thought, the memory of that might keep him in line, and he might not be so cocky.  
He reacted by pointing his weapon at me, and, not a second afterward, I transformed Note: I know what this sounds like, however, I can find no way to fix it, so I will clarify here: Grill's right hand and lower arm has transformed into a cannon, very much like Bumblebee's right arm does in the 2007 movie. Not, Grill, as a whole, has a third alt-mode. :P  
According to the Movie Guide this would be called the "weapon mode" and is, however, treated sort of like another alt-mode. ;) and pointed my own weapon at him - a cannon developed by the most basic self-defense program. If I was forced to use it I would not be able to sustain it's wasteful power consumption long, and so would have to make every shot count. However, the blue mech made no further move, so we stood in deadlock for a moment, with my new weapon hmming eerily.  
That was brought to an end by Camshaft's arrival behind me. He had tried to pry an answer out of me through the comm's, but I ignored his questions for the time being. I was prepared to fight the blue mech, until he pulled backward at the hearing of Cam's, "What's going on?"  
"Finally," I heard the blue mech mumble with a smirk, "a car with some sense." He was startled, however, after I heard Camshaft speak to Viktor - a human contact was obviously not something he was expecting.  
"Back up," I said quietly, so that only the bot in front of me could hear it. I hoped to get him to back off by making Camshaft's interruption seem preplanned. It apparently worked, because Camshaft repeated his question, "What's going on here, Grill?" and the other mech replied sourly, "I was just leaving." He pulled his weapon back, as did I, and gave one final nasty look at Camshaft, then myself. Finally, he returned to the asphalt and transformed. The sapphire Pontiac GTO then drove off rather quickly, a song playing loudly inside.

* * *

-o-

_V_  
I felt rather put out; despite Cam's expression of wanting to bring me along, he blandly told me to wait while he spoke to Grill when we arrived at the scene.  
Before Cam had talked me into waiting, though, the blue Pontiac looked ready to fight my dad's old Ford. I thought that maybe the blue guy destroyed the houses, but it didn't really look like he was capable of that. Especially not in an explosion, like we had heard.  
"Hey kid!" someone waved to me from their doorstep. Cam was heading over to the Pontiac and Grill, so I chose to ignore the yelling man. "Hey, I wanna talk to you!" The person was persistent enough to come to me, so I turned to him as he jogged over.  
"Yea?" I answered.  
"Did you not just see your car turn into an alien?" he asked a little wide-eyed.  
"No, I saw it. He's been doing that a lot lately," I said with a hint of sarcasm. "But, he's NOT an alien. That IS my car."  
"The news is saying that robots are fighting each other in the middle of the city. They said they're alien." He replied with a bit of arrogance that came from knowing something another does not.  
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time they'd be wrong," I said, a tad annoyed. "That IS my car, whether or not Channel 3 says it is."  
"Whatever," he said, shrugging his shoulders and risking a quick glimpse at the automatons. "Did it, like, threaten you into going with it or something?"  
"What?" This guy was getting odder by the minute, but I had little time to consider this, since Cam and Grill began coming our way.  
"Oh, dude, suit yourself," he mumbled before he was off on his way back to his house.  
"What was his problem?" Cam asked as the man went back inside.  
"Nothing. You know, giant alien robots tearing up the city," I replied, ruffling my hair. Very little of the styling gel remained, so my hair must've been pretty flat. "Same old, same old."  
It took Cam a second, but then I saw him brighten up and say, "Ohh." He looked to the house the man had disappeared into, where a gap in the curtains immediately closed. Then Cam looked back at me and asked, "Was he afraid?"  
I shrugged; probably, but I thought a change of tact was in order. "What about the Pontiac?"  
Grill entered the conversation by answering me first. "One human who came out of his home fired a weapon at the GTO. The Pontiac then threatened the man's life, and I intervened. I didn't see any lasting damage, but apparently he was very upset at the 'assault'."  
"Really?" The Ford spoke so vaguely I had a hard time imagining the situation. "What do you mean, no 'lasting damage'?"  
"The bullet left a scratch, but that's not something that he couldn't easily deal with, I think," Grill rumbled.  
"Apparently not," Cam muttered, "he seemed pretty testy. But I guess he could just always be that way."  
In the silence thereafter I took a few moments to appreciate the red car and truck in their taller forms. Grill gave off a low humming noise, and I saw Cam sort of blink. It was sort of odd, but it was also fun to see how they compared to humans. It seemed like a lot of things had similar principles, such as the opposable thumb on their hands (and in Cam's case, opposable pinkies as well), but some features, like the whole transforming deal, seemed nothing but alien. Also the fact that they appeared to be made of metal, and probably controlled by the vehicle's computer; yet they had personality, and, apparently, free will. They certainly had a lot of spirit.  
The ring of fire truck sirens slowly drew the silence to an end, however, causing Grill to look in the direction it was coming from. "Perhaps we should leave," he suggested.  
Cam, who had now contented himself with observing the surrounding area and people, asked, "Why?"  
"I feel as if the varied reactions we are receiving may not be without due cause," replied Grill solemnly. "It would stand to reason that many more transformers are, in nature, like that GTO, and I think some humans may try to react in self defense - even if we provide no provocation."  
"So?" Cam asked arrogantly, "if that guy with the gun was as good as 'self-defense' gets, then-"  
"Have you so quickly forgotten what we saw at Viktor's residence?"  
Cam recoiled.  
"The jets," I murmured. "I think Grill's right. If you catch too much attention they might send jets, or tanks, or something. And those sirens are pretty high on the list of 'The Best Ways to Grab Attention' list."  
"We can't get any more publicity than whatever's going on with the skyscrapers," Cam said quietly.  
"Oh, yea, that guy," I pointed to the house where the man had retreated to, "said the news is reporting aliens in the center of the city; I guess they're robots like you guys, and they're fighting each other."  
"You know, Viktor," Grill began, "We don't exactly fit the definition of 'robot'."  
"You look like robots."  
"Definition: Robot: A mechanical device operating automatically, in a seemingly human way." His tone was even as he recited.  
"Got any better nouns?" I asked, unimpressed.  
"Transformer: One who transforms," he replied.  
"That's not obvious," Cam laughed.  
"Well then, why are the other "transformers" fighting each other I wonder?" I thought aloud.  
"The confrontation with that Pontiac might very well have evolved into a brawl if he hadn't left," Grill ruminated. "It could just as well be that several transformers have had some misunderstanding in the center of the city."  
"If that's the case, we should help them!" Cam offered enthusiastically.  
"Should we really?" queried Grill. "We don't have a clue as to what's going on. If we rush headlong into a battle that we know neither the motives nor the possible long-term repercussions of, then we might as well sign off our individual thought. We may be in over our heads already, by coming into existence."  
"Well, I'm not going to keel over for the sake of convenience," Cam replied mulishly.  
"I'm not asking you to. I just want to offer that we lay low until we have a better handle on the situation."  
"Fine," conceded Cam.  
"So then," continued Grill, "the next question is where do we seek shelter until such a time as we deem necessary as to reveal ourselves to them?"  
Grill looked at me after this, so I stammered, "Home?"  
"I think it would be best," he replied.

* * *

End Chapter Two


	3. Chapter 3: Provocation

(To readers: The reason this chapter was soooo long in coming was all my fault, and I apologize. The reason it took so long is because I rewrote Chapter one innumerable times. So, chances are, the chapter one you remember, if you remember it, is not the chapter one that's up now. SO! If you're still interested in this story, I encourage you to read from chapter one again. Thank you. ALSO! I can't promise "regular" updates, but this story WILL be updated! Chapter four is currently in review by my editor, and chapter five is in the proccess of being typed. On pen and paper I actually have up to chapter 13 or 14...so, now you can be sure there is somewhere this story is going. Finally, DeviantART get's both this story and pictures of characters, if you want to watch me there (NatsumeRyu) Thank you all! Now! Onto the story!)

* * *

Chapter 3: Provocation

_Lifting Up the Son_

* * *

"In time we all will know,

Our destination, which way we will go."

"Angels" - MXPX

* * *

We went back to my house. The sirens that we had heard earlier were probably not going to make it to the partially demolished neighborhood if the fight in the middle of the city was as bad as it looked from this distance. There was a profuse amount of smoke coming from between the buildings, and some were _not_ normal hues.

After getting back home, I went inside and left the garage door open, in case the Transformers wanted to yell in at me. They agreed to stay as car in the garage, and truck in the driveway as per the "undercover" theme Grill suggested. Myself not being even moderately unusual (except for my recent acquaintances, of course), I decided not to follow the 'bots theme, but, rather, turn on the news and make myself a microwavable mini-pizza.

"What are they saying?" Cam asked about the news channel I was watching.

"Well, only a few stations are even understandable," I began, "What I got out of it, though, was that they're having technical difficulties with the equipment that went out to the scene, and I guess everything must've gone down a lil' while ago, 'cause they're saying the systems are recovering. So they're just repeating that, saying that the government is doing something down in the middle of the city, and the people who have made it to the news station are saying it's aliens. Oh, and a blue wave-thing, with an epicenter near the fight, made stuff it touched turn into these vicious robots. A couple of buildings have been torn into too, which explains some of the smoke, I guess, but nothing's collapsed."

"There's a lot of information there," Grill murmured. "Now we know _how_ we were created."

"And it wouldn't be that difficult to interrupt communications," Cam stated matter-of-factly, "at least one of the transformers there doesn't want this information corresponded."

"You guys aren't really aliens though, are you?" I asked (just to reassure myself), while changing the channel. So, a blue wave-thingy went tearing through town, and now there's all these living, thinking robots (despite what Grill said, I still thought they fit my definition of a robot). That doesn't make them alien though. That's still my car, I thought, bemused. Except, now it can say "no" when I want to go somewhere…haha.

Most of the on-air channels were covering the battle (or at least, trying to; they all had some problems), but one ignored the center of the city altogether and was focusing on some of the recently activated "aliens" fighting. They were relatively small creatures, one with white armor, the other black; the cameraman was taller than them.

"One channel has other non-aliens like you guys on there," I informed the car and truck.

"Ooh, what's happening?" Cam asked excitedly.

"It looks like they're tearing each other apart," I answered candidly.

"Not surprising," Grill said frankly. "They probably woke up next to each other, and before they had fully come online the most basic programming kicked in. I'm willing to bet it started as self-defense, but once they'd downloaded enough to speak, they should have questioned why they were fighting. What they're doing now is probably senseless."

"What if it's like between Raizer and you, though?" Cam asked him.

"Raizer?" Grill queried.

"The-" Cam cut himself off as if he had said too much. "Uhh, the GTO," he finally mumbled.

"How do you know his name?" quizzed Grill.

"I didn't mean to," Cam continued in a mumble.

Grill waited expectantly for a real answer.

"I just found him on the communicator, and he sort of hitched up a monologue," Cam finally spat out.

"And he told you his name in the process?"

"I'll send you the conversation…"

There was a pause, presumably taken up by the action, then Grill spoke again. "And that's why you disappeared from the frequency scanners? You terminated the entire program?"

"Yea, I didn't know how much he could bother me so I figured if I just closed it-"

"And what's this about 'Arkansas'? The state?" Grill cut him off.

"State?" Cam asked.

"You really should spend five minutes and learn the basics, Camshaft," Grill said tersely.

"Wasted memory, Grill, when I can just ask you or V."

"Which has now become a waste of time. Look it up yourself."

During a short pause after Grill told Cam off, I asked, "What about Arkansas?" The states name had caught my ear as I flipped through the channels on TV again.

"Camshaft had an 'instant message' conversation with the blue GTO from earlier." Grill explained. "And during the conversation the Pontiac mentioned he was going to Arkansas."

"That's…" I struggled to find an apt word, "odd."

"Why?" Cam asked dubiously.

"That's where my parents are visiting."

"They…? You don't think…." Cam spoke very slowly, unusual for him.

Everything was silent for a few moments, except for the television. Finally, I had to ask, "What?"

"The reason Raizer was going to Arkansas," the red Camaro still spoke slowly, "was because a 'recent acquaintance'…had 'unfinished business'…and…and I thought…." He did not conclude his sentence.

"The acquaintance was traveling there to assassinate multiple - though, as of yet, a still unidentified number of - humans," Grill finished for him.

"You don't think the acquaintance is mom's truck?" I asked uncertainly. "What did Raizer mean by 'unfinished business'?"

"Camshaft," Grill addressed the Camaro and ignored my questions, "how much do you remember?"

"From what?" he responded warily.

"From before sentience," Grill clarified.

"Just a bit. Something about a shopping cart…stupid shopping cart…had to go and hit me…. Aaaand…," he sat in silence for a moment; probably "remembering". "No," his voice slipped from wary to reminiscent, "that's all for right now," he finished. "Why?"

"The memories that remain of my former existence," Grill revealed, "are of particularly strong emotion, I've noticed. If, perhaps, the only memories that a mech, like, say, Seether, remembers are of bad encounters, then perhaps it would be enough to drive him to murder."

That was a truly disturbing thought. Is that what makes all of the robots have different personalities? What they remember? Why can they 'remember' stuff anyway?

"I don't think so," retorted Cam. "I remember different stuff at different times. It's not all the same memories."

"Memory by association," mumbled Grill. He sat in silence for a moment more, perhaps in thought, then continued, "Didn't Seether say something before he left? After he noticed Viktor? Other than his name, Camshaft."

"There was something he said that I didn't understand." Cam replied sheepishly, as if he were expected to know.

"I didn't understand it either, and, I was unable to record it at the time," Grill consoled.

"You guys don't honestly think that's where mom's truck went?" I asked, astounded. "Why would he want to kill-"

"You didn't listen to the syntax Seether uses." Grill's voice had more rumble in it than usual.

"He seemed really sensitive about the past," Cam added sadly.

"I don't buy it…." It seemed illogical. "Why didn't he just wait until they came back? Or why didn't he attack _me_?"

"Maybe he didn't remember you?" Cam mumbled.

"No, that wouldn't fit with my understanding of why he left," Grill contradicted. "It seemed like Viktor resurfaced the memory of his parents for Seether. At the same time, I suppose he might not have remembered they were coming back. Or, what I believe to be more likely, he could be so upset that he would not wait."

"That doesn't explain why I'm still here."

"That would lead me to believe that in those disappointing memories he has, you were likely not provocative. That fits your personality. Your mother on the other hand…"

"What," I asked, "you're saying he doesn't like mom's 'commanding air'? That's no reason to kill!"

"Remember, it goes deeper than that. If he formed an opinion about your mother early enough, then subsequent memories would be that much worse."

"So it's a case of misunderstanding?"

No answer; I took that as a yes. Sighing, I ran my hands through my hair as I slouched forward. "So," I began slowly, "What do we do?"

"Well isn't it obvious?" Cam blurted. "We go and stop him."

Slowly, I got up and went to the open garage door. "Gimme some time to get ready, and make sure no one steals anything from…(I saw the hole in the roof again, and was reminded of how I'd be grilled for that)…the garage. OK?"

"OK," Cam replied.

"Mhmm," Grill gave his acknowledgement.

Arkansas was a long ways away…I'd better take a shower first.

* * *

End Chapter Three


	4. Chapter 4: ETA

Chapter 4: ETA…

_For Daddy :D_

* * *

"'Boy,' he said to me,

'I see your future,

Though, you long for peace,

The sword is your brother!'"

"In the Valley of the Dying Sun" - House of Heroes

* * *

Almost half an hour later, I dumped out my school bag. Going through what fell out, I stuffed stuff back in that I felt like taking, mostly for mom's sake once we got there (she'd be sure to check my bag as soon as she had the opportunity). I packed a change of clothes, a text-book, a couple of writing utensils, some blank paper (even though they were a little rough-looking), my toothbrush, toothpaste, and a bunch of snacks for the trip. My phone should still be in the side pocket, where I had left it. Keys to the car - not that it would be any help - were in my lower right pants pocket, along with the house keys. After checking all this, I grabbed a few papers that had just finished printing: the MapQuest to the small town in Arkansas we were heading for, since I wasn't sure either Cam or Grill knew the way. I rifled through the papers. "Looks like everything's here," I mumbled.

A beep came from my bag. The only times my phone beeped were when I had a message or it was dying. Regardless, I grabbed the charger for the phone, knowing it would eventually be needed. I'd check the phone for messages once I got in the car.

Finally, I zipped up my bag, and grabbed my wallet off my desk, sticking it in my back left pants pocket. I walked outside to find Cam had backed out of the garage into the driveway again, where he and Grill sat parked side-by-side.

"Ready?" Cam asked brightly.

"Yea, I got some maps and stuff," I replied, getting into the Camaro's passenger seat and closing the garage.

"So you know where in Arkansas we're going?" he asked.

"I know the town they went to, but I don't know where they're staying at street-wise."

"Good, 'cause Grill was saying that we should just stay home if we didn't know where we were going."

"I'm assuming you were talking about their trip while en route to the airport?" Grill asked before Cam shut his door.

"Yea," I answered, one eyebrow cocked in the Ford's direction as I set the MapQuest papers on the other seat.

"Then Seether knows as much as you do," he informed me as Cam shut the door and started his engine.

Not that we needed to be reminded of that… I thought grimly.

My phone beeped again, reminding me to check it as Cam rolled out of the driveway. Being a slide-open phone, the screen was always visible, but only lit up when I opened it, pressed a button, or it was telling me something. After I pulled the phone out of the backpack's side cell-phone pocket, I noticed the iridescent blue background of the main screen was in place, but the navigation was missing. In its position was a large face-like emote- right side up. The phone sprung out of my hand and transformed as Cam began down the road.

"Whoa!" I said, recoiling.

"Whoa, is right," Cam mused. "He's so small."

The tiny transformer quickly crawled under the unoccupied seat.

"Hey-" Cam protested, "That…. Get out of there!"

The seat slid forward, revealing the phone (it had transformed back).

"He looks scared," I remarked, bending closer. When the phone did not respond, I reached over the center console and picked it up. Cam's seat slid back after it was removed, and I let the phone sit silently in my open palm, which was hovering over the center console. "Why hasn't it done anything 'til now?" I wondered aloud. The phone vibrated slightly, like a shiver.

"It was too scared to come out of your bag?" Cam suggested. "Or maybe it couldn't get out on its own - though I doubt that."

"Well, he was beeping, so he must not have been afraid of me."

"How's that?"

"I think he's afraid of you," I added as an afterthought.

"Why?" Cam asked, sounding affronted.

"Perhaps it's the seemingly omnipresent voice that's suddenly appeared a few minutes ago," I mused sarcastically.

"Hm," grumbled Cam. "Look," he paused, "little beeping Transformer," he paused again, "what are you afraid of?"

A short, staccato string of beeps followed.

"Ha," Cam laughed shortly.

A few more beeps - though this time more musical, and even a little upset-sounding.

"No, no, that's cool," Cam said.

"I'm assuming you guys are holding a conversation?" I said as I looked between the phone and the front of the car- presumably the head/center of Cam.

"Yea. You didn't catch that, V?" the Camaro answered.

"He's _beeping_," I mumbled indignantly.

"Yea, there's only a few tones, so it's pretty easy to pick up."

"Mmm," I decided not to ruin Cam's simplistic view- apparently I was supposed to be able to translate the random sounding beeps. "So what did he say?"

"He was afraid when he saw everyone was bigger than him."

Two low, long beeps ensued. The phone transformed, again jumping out of my hand. This time it ran up the center console to the front, over to the cigarette lighter, beeping all the way.

"No, I don't want to c-" Cam was cut off as the phone came into contact with the cigarette lighter, a small shock ensuing. Cam swerved, the little phone-bot jumped back, and I grabbed a hold of the armrest on Cam's door in surprise. An angry horn blared outside. "Sor-sorry," Cam blustered tiredly, correcting the swerve.

"What was that?" I asked, watching the surrounding cars, outside the window, getting away from our vicinity. Some of the people inside them could be seen with mouths cursing angrily, and one went blazing past with the birdie held up. I don't think any of them looked long enough to realize I was on the wrong side to be driving. Meanwhile, the phone had started charging toward the front again, this time with more care towards the lighter than before.

"Hey minibot, I _will_ pull over if you-" Cam began angrily. But again, he was cut off as the phone caused a ruckus. This time, it had successfully used the cigarette lighter as a step to reach the radio. Pressing the "eject" button, the radio faceplate fell off.

"That's it," Cam growled, "V, stick him in the glove compartment."

Said compartment opened in front of me, and the phone transformed in surprise. But not into a phone. I leaned over and picked up the object. On the still in-tact screen read:

"XM satellite radio"

It had become a replacement. Realizing this as I turned the new faceplate over in my hands, I went to stick it in.

"No!" Cam cried, "You're giving in to what he wants! I told him I didn't want-"

I paused for only a moment to hear Cam's argument. As the former phone clicked into place, Cam shivered slightly and reduced his speed.

"Oh," he said quietly. "That's…cool, I guess."

I sat in silence as Cam continued to drive us further from home. He slowly regained the speed he had lost, and Grill stayed persistently behind us.

"V," Cam said suddenly, "Beeper taught me something new today."

"His name?" I was surprisingly sarcastic when bored.

"Hnn, well, that too...but what I wanted to show you was this-"

A silvery screen appeared before me, shimmering. I poked it, and the affected area vacillated and blurred. "What is it? What's it do?" I asked, withdrawing.

In response, the screen, about one foot high, and a little wider than it was tall, opened the main page of a popular news site. It scrolled down, and a link (Mission City Incident) highlighted for a moment before going to the affiliated page.

"You can connect to the internet?" I asked the car. Before he could reply, however, my thoughts reached another conclusion: "So the maps I printed off the web are useless now?" I groaned.

The phone, Beeper, beeped in what sounded like a sad manner.

"Yea, I'm sure you're sorry," I joked, smiling. "As long as we get there, I don't care how."

Another silvery screen appeared, this one with a map and statistics of the trip at the top. It hovered over the unoccupied seat.

"ETA: 17.8 hours….Now I remember why mom and dad flew…this is going to take forever." My spirits fell as the prospect of an 18 hour trip sunk in.

"Just do whatever you've _been_ doing," Cam said optimistically as the view of Mission City disappeared behind the dry-brown mountains we passed.

"I don't sleep well in the car…it's probably the only place I can't sleep. That and planes."

"You were sleeping? The entire time?"

I was surprised that Cam was surprised. "I only slept for…today is Monday, right?" - I counted since the beginning of break - "Three days…That's not bad…" After a moment's silence, I continued. "…for me. Look, I was just making up lost sleep that I missed from school."

The web page in front of me switched from the news site to a medical site with information about sleep.

"Ugh, look, all that sleep will be cancelled out by this trip." I waved my hand through the holo-screen, making it blur beyond recognition. When I stopped, the news page returned, and I browsed through it again. "Hah, they're claiming to be the first site that's recovered from the blackout. And, says here they've got a growing list of reports of the 'bots activated by 'a blue, electrostatic wave'."

"So now it's not just a 'blue-wave thingy'?" Cam laughed. "it's electrostatic? How do they figure that?"

"Dunno'," I murmured, pointing at the map of America with little images of pins stuck into it. Supposedly, each pin was a reported transformer. Bunches of pins were clustered around Mission City in Southern Nevada, with the pins growing sparser as the distance from the city increased. The farthest pin was in the state of Washington.

"Well, there're no reports in Arkansas," Cam whispered hopefully and almost seemingly to himself. "Seems like there's no real danger….yet."

"Do you think we can beat Raizer there?" I asked equally quietly. "It looked like a fast car."

"It's not Raizer we have to beat," Grill suddenly said, an audio equalizer replacing the map on the screen that floated over the other seat. Unlike Cam's voice, it didn't sound like it was coming from everywhere at once; I could trace back the sound to the speakers. It was also surprisingly _clear_.

"But I think Beeper would be better qualified to answer that." Cam's voice had taken a lighter note, and was at a near normal volume again.

"He's never seen Raizer though, I thought." I looked at the phone-radio in the middle of the car questioningly.

"Didn't stop him from tapping into my memory banks, the little-"

Beeper broke out into a frenzy of beeps in defense.

"Less talking, more driving," Grill spoke again, the audio equalizer reflecting the wavelengths of his voice.

"Oh, that was our turn, wasn't it?" Cam said sheepishly.

I leaned back in the seat; it was going to be a long drive.

* * *

End Chapter Four

* * *

ETA Acronym: Estimated Time of Arrival


	5. Chapter 5: Almost Halfway

Chapter 5: Almost…Halfway

_For Unexpected Friends_

* * *

\()/

"From the north, down to the south, to the east side,

to the west coast where we ride…"

"Worldwide" – Blood Bought (Twzo, Oracle, Jocyph; from the Transformers Mix-Tape)

* * *

I tossed. I turned.

"Will you quit squirming?" Cam asked of me while Beeper chimed musically along to music playing quietly in the background.

"Even I can't sit still after nine hours of driving," I complained, rolling on my stomach. The seat was laid back pretty much flat, allowing me to sleep a little, but I was still uncomfortably stiff from the lack of movement.

"The less you move now, the sooner you get to move later," Cam stated, sounding bored. "Anyway, how do you think I feel? My tires are hot and I'm stiff too."

I glared at the front of the car. "_You're_ stiff?"

"Yes."

"Ugh, how much more to go?"

"Around eight hours."

I grabbed the back of the chair tightly and pressed my face into it. I couldn't remember sitting still for so long and not being able to sleep. I was irritable - every time we stopped to fill up, the bots reminded me that I didn't have time to spare for stretching my legs. And so now I sat, upset that the day had gone so horribly wrong; in fact, my whole break from school was ruined by this…incident. If only it was all a dream…

_Woo._ The sound of a police siren broke me from the hope that I might actually be asleep. "What'd'ja do?" I asked. "How fast are we going?"

A pause. "Faster than we're supposed to be. Hey, it wasn't me- everyone else is going faster too! Plus, he flashed his lights at Grill…not," Cam's speech slowed down suddenly, "…me."

I sat up, and blearily looked out the front window into the lightening sky. Grill was in front of us now, because Cam kept speeding up, and leaving him behind. Soon, I located the cop, who had just passed us; it wasn't what I expected. Rather than a cop car, it was actually a K-9 Ford Explorer with New Mexico plates (since we were now traveling through that state).

"Hurry up Grill! Speed up!" Cam urged Grill audibly.

"So, I was right," I heard an unfamiliar voice speak via Cam's speakers. It got its own little holo-screen, with equalizer and all, down below the screen with traveling information. "Pull over!" The voice suddenly commanded.

"Beeper!" Cam whined, "Close communications!"

Grill's and the unfamiliar voice's equalizers closed, leaving one screen left: the fairly sized one floating in front of the steering wheel with remaining time, traveling velocity, and the map on it.

"Who wazzat?" I asked tiredly, collapsing back onto the seat.

"The cop," Cam replied. "It's getting lighter out, and he probably noticed no one was inside Grill when we passed him."

"How did he talk to you though?" My face was screwed up in an effort to shut out the light growing brighter throughout the sky. I was so very frustrated on how everything seemed to be going wrong.

"Grill's getting off at the next exit…," Cam stated warily as I felt us slowing down.

That doesn't answer my question, I thought doggedly.

Soon, Cam had put the reclining seat up, so I was forced to sit up with it. I wasn't quite following what was happening, as my eyes opened and closed in a slow rhythm. I saw us pass a small gas station. I saw a lot of big conifers surrounding a pool. And then we hit the rocks. I was jerked back into consciousness as we drove over a dirt road, the airborne dust kicked up from Grill, and the cop who had slipped in between us, slowly falling back to the ground as we drove through it. Suddenly, Cam came to a grinding halt, and a fwa-pinging noise resounded through the Camaro's chassis. I fell forward onto the dash, seeing as how I hadn't put my seatbelt back on after the seat resumed its upward position. I couldn't really care less about why Cam had stopped. I had never realized before how comfortable the dash could be…

"Ow!" Cam exclaimed loudly. "Grill, I can't clear this! Look, just stop, no one will see us!" Cam's voice was much louder when you had your ear to the dash, which I was regretting allowing myself to do as soon as I was forced awake again. "C'mon, V," Cam said, "You've gotta get up and out."

I didn't move. _Just leave me alone,_ I thought. I felt a tug on my shirt. A quiet beep.

"C'mooooon, V," Cam repeated, opening his door. The chill morning air blew in and snapped me back awake momentarily.

I got out, Beeper dangling on the hem of my shirt then crawling up to my shoulder. I saw the evergreens from before. From the edge we were off of now however, you could hardly see through the foliage. There were dense bushes growing untamed at the trees' bases. Turning my attention back to Cam, on my other side, I saw him shut his door just before transforming. "What are you doing?" I asked, voice raspy. "What if-"

"Calm down, wake up, no one will see us." Cam reassured me.

I was about to protest, pointing at the black & white Explorer, until its rear driver's-side door opened, allowing a German Shepherd to come trundling out. It barked once at our general direction, then faced Grill, who was behind him. He barked a few times then whined.

"Good job, Encephylon." The voice came from the K-9 vehicle and was the same voice I had heard when Cam was talking to Grill before…. The dog looked at the Explorer and whined some more.

I stood gawking at the Ford and its dog.

"Well, are you going to transform or not?" Cam asked, visibly annoyed.

"Who?" The Explorer asked.

"You," Cam glared at the K-9 vehicle.

"Why should I?"

"What, you won't talk to me face-to-face?"

Without question, the Ford Explorer transformed, turning to face Cam and myself. Grill stayed silently on the other side. "Happy?" He said.

"I dunno. Why'd you pull us over? You're wasting our time." Cam's toe tapped the dirt impatiently.

"I didn't pull you over," he pointed over his shoulder, towards Grill, "I pulled him over."

"OK, well, he's with us. What do you want? We're in a hurry."

"I noticed." The Explorer said, unimpressed. After a brief pause he queried, "You wouldn't be following someone would you?"

Cam seemed to be mulling over in his head whether or not to tell the cop. I decided for him.

"Yes," I said. "That's why we're in a hurry."

I waited for his response. Cam huffed and held his arms akimbo.

"I'm following someone as well," he revealed, kneeling to pet his dog, which had taken a seat next to him. "Encephylon here can track - us," he pointed to Cam, Grill, and himself.

"Transformers," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"Yes," he paused to look at me, "That's what got my attention on him," again he pointed to Grill, "and I noticed no driver. Now, my reason for following - well, a little ways off the interstate a good distance back, I found a large gas station, completely demolished. I saw the remains of a transformer there. He was offline, and looked to be in bad shape. Half of him was under some collapsed debris. There was nothing I could do; already the police had much of the area covered, and a minute after I arrived, so did several helicopters. Military by the looks of them. By then I decided I would have to leave, which is when Encephylon told me which way to go. I found some tracks along the way to the interstate, and made up my mind to find out who killed that transformer at the station. I've been following ever since."

"You don't think it's us, do you?" Cam asked, suspicious.

"No. You don't run on diesel. It was a diesel fuel station, and there were evaporating trails of diesel along the tracks I'd found."

"Diesel," Grill finally spoke. "Looks like we've found your proof Camshaft."

I cringed at the thought of the loud diesel engine that mom's truck ran on. At least I didn't have to try to sleep with that pounding through my head.

Cam sank at the idea of evidence that Seether had been by here, and that an act of violence had been committed. "Doesn't mean I like it," he said sadly.

"Are we following the one and the same, then?" The cop asked.

"Sounds like it," Cam conceded.

Without further ado, the achromatic Ford continued, "My name's Cougar, and you already know Encephylon." The Explorer drew near to us, offering his hand to Cam.

"Cam," the Camaro replied in a depressed manner, hardly moving.

"V," I said, offering my own hand slightly. I shook Cougar's finger.

Beeper beeped a little bit on my shoulder, warily looking up at the 20-or-so foot tall robot.

"Beeper?" Cougar asked. "Ahh, OK," he said after Beeper replied.

"And-" I began.

"Grill," the red Ford introduced. "Forgive me for not transforming. Saving energy."

"Right," Cougar said, turning to the older Ford, "well, I think I have something for you then." Despite his comment to Grill, he turned back to me, pulling out what looked like a credit card. Offering it ( I was surprised his fingers had enough precision to pull it out of his being, let alone to keep hold of the tiny, slick piece of plastic), he said, "It's a gas card. My driver- poor guy, loved animals -he had a really bad memory…so I have a few more if need be…. They really shouldn't have kept him in the force." He shook his head as he finished.

"Ah, I see-eh-yaaah," I took the card, unable to hold back a yawn as the chillness of the morning faded with the first peak of the sun over the flat horizon.

"Let's hit the road then- we have some ground to cover," Cam said dully, walking to the evergreens and peering around them. He then went a bit further and transformed. "I think I can make it over all this stuff-" There was dry brush littering the ground. "It's the bigger rocks I can't clear safely." Silently, I stood, staring back at the Camaro. "Well, let's go," he continued. I slowly trudged to my car's side, looking at the gas card. It looked very similar to a credit card…

The passenger door opened and I got inside, Beeper jumping immediately to the center console. Outside, I heard Cougar transform and Grill start his engine. The door shut and sounds were drowned out, so I peered out the big back window. Encephylon hopped inside Cougar, the door shutting thereafter, and both Fords began to follow us back to the road and the interstate.

* * *

-o-

_(Cam)_

V drifted off again almost as soon as we'd hit the pavement, though, not before Beeper had insisted on being connected again. So as we reached our peak speed on the interstate (Grill taking the lead again), Beeper opened a link between the four of us.

Beeper: :Thx Cougar, ur interruption earlier made me realize I needed to find a way to make our signal private. Can everyone communicate OK?:

Grill: :Affirmative.:

Camshaft: :You have to ask?:

Cougar: :Yes.:

Beeper: :Good. This way, we can also keep the line open while around Raizer and Seether, and they won't be able to get it. It could give us the upper hand.:

Camshaft: :You're already thinking about that? We still have another 7-8 hours left before we get there!:

Cougar: :We have a destination then? You know where he- they are going?:

Beeper: :We think so. What does Sephy say?:

Cougar: :Sephy?:

Beeper: :Ur dog.:

Cougar: :Oh, Encephylon. He's still got the scent…or whatever it is he follows.:

Beeper: :OK, let me know if Cephy loses it or says it's another direction, k?:

Cougar: :Understood.:

Camshaft: :Where did the dog's name come from?:

Cougar: :Remember me saying how my owner loved animals?:

Camshaft: :Yea.:

Cougar: Well, he has a lot of pets AND he works with many of his departments animals, so the names he chose had to become unique. You couldn't have five "Spots" running around.:

Cougar: :That and I think odd names are easier for him to remember.:

Camshaft: :Hmm. And what about your name?:

Beeper: :Cam!:

Grill: :It's rude to ask.:

Cougar: :No, it's alright.:

Cougar: :I prefer felines to any other specie in the world- and the cougar happens to be my favorite.:

Camshaft: :Uh-huh…:

* * *

End Chapter Five


	6. Chapter 6: Arrival

Chapter 6: Arrival

* * *

\o/

"You sit beside me  
and I love you,  
but I hate you;  
I don't want to feel this way,  
but I can't stop."

-"So Help Me God" - Fireflight  
\/

* * *

It wasn't until noon that we reached Arkansas. Beeper had to change our route slightly when he realized we were to switch over to a toll road later, so we took a slightly longer route, but also one that didn't require each of us to stop. It would be all too obvious there were no drivers for the Fords. So now we were on the 540 heading north, towards the small town of Beau Vue. We finally traded out Oklahoma's flat landscape for the Ozark's tree topped "mountains" about an hour ago, and I was thankful. The flat plains were not also bad for cover, if one of the transformers had to come out of hiding, but it was slightly unnerving, as I had lived in a valley all my life. I had never been without mountains, however small. Compared to home, the Ozark's were more like hills, but, nonetheless, they surrounded you, and made me feel more comfortable. I had gotten a bit of sleep – though not nearly enough – but it did make me less irritable and unfocused. Right now I sat reading more news via Cam & Beeper's hologram browser to keep myself occupied as we drew ever closer to our destination. One old broadcast replayed: "You are now - now looking at, obviously a very disturbing shot there…. That is the tall commercial building next to the World Market Center. We have unconfirmed reports this afternoon that some form of huge foreign jet has crashed into it."

The female reporter spoke very quickly, and was obviously nervous as she stuttered somewhat. The news station went on to speak about the reports that were making it to them- claims of giant robots, aliens, terrorist attacks.… Apparently, the transformers that were brought online must have decided it best to hide, because reports of "creepy alien robots" were reduced to nearly zero by the end of that first day. They had all but disappeared- no doubt their natural camouflage aiding in this endeavor. Likewise, when we chose to take this longer route, avoiding the toll roads, Encephylon lost track of whatever he was after. Anyway, as the video ended, I searched through tons of YouTube videos, trying to find the most reliable ones. I noticed one specific news station was broadcasting more reports of transformers than the others. Often the video was from helicopter; how they caught so many transformers on tape was beyond me. While I was thinking about this, as one of their recorded videos played, the holographic browser involuntarily closed.

"Hey, Cam!" I exclaimed. "I was watching that!"

"We're stopping," Cam said slowly, perhaps hurt.



"Huh?" I asked, looking out the window. "Are we there? Did Cougar find something? A clue?"

I received no reply as we exited the moderately busy interstate, pulling into the very empty parking lot of a church that overlooked the active expressway and the town's slow-paced center. I got out, eager to be able to stretch again, if only for a minute. Encephylon exited his ride as well and went running over to some bushes and a tree.

"Is this Beau Vue?" I asked, checking out our surroundings. The sky was covered in a light-grey mass of clouds, and every inch of uncivilized ground was covered in green. Everything was damp, and a light fog hung in the air; I guess it rained earlier.

"Yes," Grill replied. "This is the town- or, rather, village center. It is inhabited by approximately 20,000 humans, widely spread throughout the area. It will be time consuming to search every street, as many are dead ends, according to Beeper."

"That's why we split up," suggested Cougar. "Some go search the roads on this side of the interstate, and the others search on the opposing side. Most of the homes for sale and recreational activities are located on the other side, so I suggest we have more searching over there. Do you know what your family came here for, V?"

"Wha?" I tore my eyes away from the far side of the road- I had been daydreaming. "No, actually I don't…. What is there to do here?"

"Lakes, golf, and the like," Cougar answered.

"Dad likes golf," I said. "Mom wouldn't let him drag her along just for that though… are there like…any hotels around here that they might stay at?"

"Around here? No. The nearest hotel we passed about ten minutes ago."

"What? Then why'd they say they were coming here?"

"Maybe they're house hunting?" Cam offered quizzically, "They might have come to find a new house- Oh, do you think they heard about what happened in the city? Then I'm sure your mom'd really want to move."

I considered this. "Now that I think of it- why hasn't mom called me since the network seems to be working fine again? I thought she would've been "worried sick" – wait, why I haven't I tried calling them?" I went back over to Cam to open his door, but stopped as he spoke.

"Beeper already tried that. It goes straight to the voice mail. And he says he thinks he knows why – there's no cell service here."

My shoulders slumped as the small ray of hope was put out.

"Hey, you don't think they already went home, do you? After they heard about the news? What if we came out here for no reason whatsoever?"



"Then Seether would be very angry, I'd imagine," I remarked, walking around a bit, circling small puddles.

Suddenly, Encephylon barked. I turned to look in the direction he now ran towards; a bright green convertible pulled out of the parking lot on the other side of the two-lane road that went over the interstate.

"Prob'ly a Transformer," I heard Cougar say quietly, "though, I thought there were no reports out here. Is that…?"

"No," Cam said, "I've never seen that car before…In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a car even painted that bright of a green before. What was it?"

"Mitsubishi," Grill answered, "Year: 2007. Model: Eclipse…" A slight pause. "…and the convertibles also carry the title 'Spyder'. They aren't available in that color from the factory. That's custom painted."

Encephylon stopped running at the sidewalk, and once the brightly colored car and the road it was on disappeared behind the trees, the German Shepherd came running back, whining. The light town traffic went on, oblivious.

"I know, boy," Cougar crooned. "Ready to go yet?" he asked at large.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I said quickly, getting back into Cam. Beeper left as I buckled in. "Hey!" I said to my phone, "Where're you going?"

"He'll be with Grill. That way we're all in pairs," Cam replied for Beeper.

After I got in, everyone started their engines; Cougar, with Encephylon, went right, and Grill followed us left, across the interstate. This took us winding up through the hills. Within a few minutes of natural scenery, including a moderately sized valley with an earthen dam, we came to a four-way stop with different banks on three of the four corners. I'd never seen so many banks so close to each other before. Their parking lots were all quite full – did people here spend all their time there?

"Looks like this is where Grill and I part," Cam stated flatly. "Which way should I go, Grill?"

I indiscernibly heard Grill's slight rumble of speech from behind us.

"Fine," Cam said, answering what I didn't hear.

"Much better." Grill could now be heard from Cam's speakers.

"Just give us the options, Grill," Cam said impatiently.

"Left or straight. If you go right you'll be in Doe, Missouri within five minutes."

_We're that close to the border?_ I thought.

"Left or straight, V?" Cam asked me.



"Left," I answered quickly. If I just chose the first option, it made the decision that much easier; Cam didn't expect me to know which way my parents would've picked, did he?

Cam followed the instruction, and I turned back in the seat to see Grill drive straight through the intersection. This road was much like the one we had just left; dense summer forest was on either side of the two-lane street. After a quarter mile of various green trees, we finally saw our first house off on a short stretch of asphalt that branched off of the road we were on. It sat in a relatively clear acre of ground.

"What should we do?" Cam asked, slowing down. "We're not going to stop at every house are we?"

"No," I said slowly, "Keep going. Just stop at "for sale" stuff."

"OK."

"There's another street," I said, noticing a stretch of pavement ahead that, again, sat in a more cleared state.

Cam slowed down and turned, then stopped altogether. Ahead of us, a familiar blue car was careening down the middle of the skinny street. "V! V, get out!" the Camaro exclaimed, rolling backwards a little bit. I did so, and ran to the forest not forty feet from the asphalt.

I turned in time to see Cam transform along with Raizer at the last second. Cam caught the speeding blue blur of a 'bot, and they went flying back onto the main road with a collection of yells. "Why do you hang around that insect?" I could hear Raizer ask Cam. The creek and screech of metal resounded, and I leaned out to see around some foliage. Raizer went flying past me, almost into a tree, and then I saw Cam getting up. His right shoulder hung a little low at first then he stood up straight.

"I'm not interested in talking to you," my car replied walking towards the Pontiac, who was only now getting up.

Raizer rubbed his gauntlet-like armor then chanced a glance at me. "If you're here, kid, then you know of one number I've added to my party." He scowled, looking back to the red, slightly shorter transformer. "Little Red, let's play." Immediately, he dashed and punched; Cam pulled up his guard.

"You just wanna fight, is that it?" Cam asked, just barely holding off the throw and looking very stern.

"Why not? Big Red's barrel isn't here to discharge at my neck, so I'm game." Raizer pushed off of Cam and fell back again. The Camaro recovered and replaced his guard.

I slunk behind a tree at the reference to Grill's cannon, which wasn't used at their first encounter. Were the others still searching?

As if reading my mind, Cam said quietly, "Cougar's on his way. His road was a no-go. Grill's still searching on his path though."

"What was that?" Raizer asked, perking up.

"His name is Grill," Cam said loudly, pulling up his guard a little bit more. "And I'm not "little red". My name is Camshaft – get it right."

"Whatever!" Raizer exclaimed, drawing nearer and punching once again. Simultaneously, a lightning bolt, and its resounding thunder, cracked through the air above them. Cam moved just fast enough to get Raizer's shot to glance off safely then moved to make his own throw. Raizer caught the red fist with his left, and punched again with his other hand. Cam, taking the hit, staggered backwards, bent over, but staying on his feet. Slowly, Raizer moved back in, apparently relishing the slight advantage he'd just gained. As soon as the GTO was within range however, Cam drew himself up again, and pulled up his left arm quickly. I thought it was going to be for an uppercut, but his hand was open and straight forward in the wrong position before it transformed slightly, a luminescent red blade protruding from his lower arm a few good feet. Raizer jumped back just fast enough to avoid the cut, then cursed under his breath. He fell back further, suddenly looking uncertain. Cam smiled weakly, still hunched over a little bit. He took a deep breath then said, "What? Don't want to fight anymore?" He then stood up straight, pointing the red-hot sword directly at Raizer. Rain slowly began to fall, droplets becoming steam when they touched Cam's weapon.

A car passed on the road behind them. Cam glanced, and Raizer took off back down the way he came, transforming once he had gone a few feet.

Cam huffed, relaxing his stance. I came back out from under the cool shadow of the trees and said soberly, despite my wording, "Wow, I didn't know you could do that."

Cam sat down on this side of the road and admired the blade. "Beeper gave me the idea," he said.

"It looks…like a light saber, but it's not see through," I said, standing next to him and admiring the blade as well, whilst the drops of rain continued to fall slowly.

"It's not though, whatever that is." He brought it down to the moist ground and cut, leaving a clean gash in the earth.

"Wow," I repeated. "Can you do that with your right arm too?"

"Probably, but not at the same time. It takes too much power- especially when it's cloudy like this…" With that, the blade retracted and his arm and hand transformed back. Even when intently watching the transformation occur, it was difficult to follow the pieces, as they shifted too quickly.

"What do you-" I began, but Cam exclaimed,

"Grill's found-!" He stumbled back onto the road and transformed. "Get in!"

I did so quickly- he didn't have to tell me twice.

"Grill's found your parents, V!" he exclaimed happily, travelling quickly back on the road over which we had previously come.

We followed the road all the way back to the stop sign. From there we turned left- the way Grill had gone. I noticed immediately that this area had a lot more side streets, and many more houses as a result. I wondered how Grill had found them so quickly.

"Uh-oh," Cam said along the way, "this is not good- Seether spotted Grill. Beeper says Grill's doing his best to keep him occupied, but Beeper can't catch up with your mom and dad, V."

"What about Cougar?" I asked.

"Still on his way. He's only a little ways behind us, I think." We drove in silence for a moment before he continued, "We're almost there- What the…?"

We were probably _both_ confused; up ahead there were a few cars backed up in a small traffic jam (only about six cars either way).

"Oh, give me a break!" Cam yelled, revving his engine. "V, it's that street up there. Get out."

I obeyed, though a little shakily. I felt adrenaline pumping already.

Cam transformed.

"You can't-" I began. I shut up when Cam picked me up and went running past the cars.

"Yes, I can," he said simply.

When we nearly reached the appointed road, Cam slowed and set me down. Then he went forward a bit more and peered around the corner of trees which formed at the point where the two roads intersected.

I looked at the cars that still sat in a jam on the road. Bits of metallic debris were strewn out from the street we were going for. Someone had driven over it and received a couple of flat tires in the process, leaving their car diagonally on the thin road. I didn't see the driver anywhere. While looking for him, I noticed all the people in the cars stuck on either side. They were absolutely aghast, which reminded me Cam was right behind me. My face got hot and I pointed to Cam while giving a thumbs-up to the people who were watching. Hopefully they would understand he wouldn't hurt them. Most of the people were fairly aged, and I worried that Cam had given someone a heart attack.

"What are you doing?" Cam asked, shocking me.

"Nothing," I said quickly, turning back to face him.

"OK, well, I saw Seether and Grill just around the corner up there for a moment. Then Seether…well, yea, they're up there. I'm gonna try and surprise Seether. You have to get past him to your parents, unseen, OK?"

"Right," I said, a feeling of nervousness washed over me.

"Are you alright? You look pale."

"Good enough, I'm just nervous."

"OK, stick to the trees in case they come around the corner again. When you get to the top of the hill at that turn, wave at me then get ready. I'll drive up the street and try to get Seether without him seeing me, then you run like…like…the dickens. –Or was it chickens?"

My face went blank. Where did Cam pick that up from?

"Goooo," he urged me.

I went, getting into the greenery ASAP. Though the brush beneath the trees was rather tall, it wasn't thick, so I made my way up fairly easily. Soon, I could hear growling and the creaking and clanging of metal on metal.

"I'm so close…" I could hear a rather unfamiliar voice say. With that, I pressed quietly through the plants a little bit further, until I could see the shiny, tan, armored legs of my mom's truck in robot form. Another step and I caught the intense red of Grill's hide.

"Graaaagh!" I heard one of them yell. I made my way nearer to the street during the ruckus Seether made as he went pounding over to Grill. I made it to the edge of the trees that lined the street before it curved, and waved down at Cam, whom could just be seen. The Camaro transformed and started up the road.

I started immediately following the road further, careful to not be too close to be visible, and trying not to be too loud. The latter wasn't so hard to keep, as Grill pushed back Seether forcefully, and the sandstone mech went scraping backward 20 feet or so, very close to the turn in the asphalt. I heard another loud noise, then a weapon firing- Grill fell backwards. I was just far enough to still be behind the Ford, and, hesitantly, I crawled towards him, wary not to leave what cover I had from Seether. The F-series truck sat up, but didn't seem to notice me. I heard Cam's engine as he drew closer, then I heard him transform and yell. As the two Chevys collided, I dashed across the road, staying behind Grill.

"…first place…" I could just hear him say as I passed by.

Once I reached the other side of the road, I dived back into the forest that continued where the pavement ended, staying low to the ground. Immediately, I started on my way further up the road.

* * *

End Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7: Departure

Chapter 7

_tgGt_

\o/

"You've never seen a fight like this before;  
I'll take you down and leave here wanting more.  
You've crossed the line that I cannot ignore;  
you've never seen a fight like this before."  
-"Fight Like This" - Decyfer Down  
\|/

The asphalt curved again shortly up the road, so, as I was now completely out of view of all of the transformers, I left the hindrance that was the forest. The trees had blocked much of the noise that came from Grill and the others, so I pounded down the street as fast as I could, assuming they couldn't hear me any better. Shortly, a "for sale" sign came into view up ahead on the right side of the street across from two houses which graced either side of the asphalt road intersecting mine. I found a concrete driveway near the sign with a midnight blue Chevrolet Equinox sitting parked on one side. I went up to the front door, finding it to be locked. There wasn't one of those receptacles for house keys either. Perhaps this home had only recently been sold? Or maybe the owners still lived in it? Either way, my parents wouldn't be inside. I stepped down from the porch; how could Grill lead me on a wild goose chase like this?

"Ooh," A muffled high-pitched squeal sounded from around the house, "Alex, get it, get it, get it!!!!" That sounded like a distinctly familiar frenzied woman. A light trill was heard next, and Beeper came around the corner of the house through tall grass. I bent down to greet him, and he transformed; the cell phone coming to a skidding halt by my feet on the concrete drive. It was off.

"That'll teach you to-" My dad rounded the house next, broom held in his large hands. "V?"

"Honey, where'd it go?" My terrified and concerned mother asked, peeking around the corner. "Viktor?"

"Mom? Dad!" I yelled, picking up Beeper and running over to them._ Finally!_

"What're you-"

"No time––mom, dad, we have to get away from here NOW. You heard about what happened in Mission City, right? Giant alien robots and the like? Well, all of our cars are here–– now–– just around that corner, and they're all transformers, and that was my phone you were chasing, and, anyway, Seether––your truck, mom––we think he's out here to kill you guys and-"

"Hush, Viktor, you're not making any sense," my mom remarked, putting up a hand to quiet me.

_Deep breaths_––"I think we'll be killed if we stay here," I said simply.

Dad continued to stare at me awkwardly, perfectly content to let mom sort this out. Mom, on the other hand, drew back, as if to let him take the mantle.

"What?" Dad asked, leaning the broom he was holding against the side of the house. Another woman came around the corner––presumably a realtor.

I looked at Beeper––how better to explain? I turned the phone back on, and Beeper's emoticon face immediately graced the screen. It glanced out the top-right, towards my parents, then instantly the face disappeared to be replaced by the text, "SHES CRAZY!!!"

"No, she's not," I murmured, "she's just…scared."

"of me?" Beeper texted.

"Who are you talking to?" Mom asked.

I replied with, "Mom, Dad, this is Beeper. He's my phone, and now he's a transformer too." Despite having the presence of one of these strange creatures within sight, I doubted that they understood, since it _looked_ like my phone. And there was no way I could make him transform. "Beeper, we need to get away from here––quick. I need your help to get my parents outta here."

Mom just shook her head, which said, "I don't know what you mean." That was supposed to make me answer her "straightforwardly." As if I could be any clearer.

A small map appeared on the phone's screen; the starting point was our position. "Let's go," I said, gesturing to the road.

"I'm not going anywhere until you explain yourself, young man," Mom said accusingly.

I sighed; mom could be impossible sometimes.

"What are you doing here?" Apparently she took my sigh as forfeit to the "argument". "Who's watching the house? What do you mean all of our cars are here?" she began questioning.

_Thud. Thud. Thud_. Growing ever stronger––transformer footfalls. _Thud. Thud. Bang. THUD_. "Oof." A transformer being shot, and falling to the ground? We had to hurry!

"What was that?" Mom asked shrilly.

I dashed to the edge of the driveway; still no one was in sight. As the other three humans came to my side, however, a large, metallic, composite hand struck out at the asphalt, grabbing for a hold. It dragged behind it Seether. "Get OFF," he yelled back at some still unseen transformer. I looked back at my parents––Dad's mouth was slightly open in awe, and mom was the tinted pinkish-white of shock. She screamed.

I looked back to Seether, whose attention was suddenly caught on us; his little antennae things on his head stood up.

"GO!" I yelled pushing my dad in the direction Beeper wanted us to go. Thankfully, he moved, and grabbed mom to take along with him. She came with, but the realtor ran back to her SUV. I led dad, who was leading mom, onto the nearby intersecting street. I was running, but had to slow down for both of the adults. _Can't even run-_

"Raizer!" I identified the yell as Seether's. "There-!" _Clang_!

"What?" was Raizer's angry reply. "I didn't see-" _Clang!_

"Arggggh!" came a loud roar. _Bang; bang; bang_. Several separate shots fired into the air.

Despite my parents moving as slowly as I thought they did, sounds were drowned out soon enough.

"Where are we going?" Dad asked, looking a little apprehensive. Apparently they believed me now, so I didn't have to explain what they saw….

"Dunno," I replied, trying to act cool, "I didn't look." I checked Beeper again, though, so I could see. We followed this road until it ended, then we followed another road for about the same distance until we came to a place labeled on the map as "The Highlands."

After a minute's more flight, dad spoke again. "You said I was chasing your _phone_?"

"Yea," I held Beeper up so that my parents, who were behind me, could see him. The blue cell made a high pitched squeak and slid shut.

"Cool," dad said unabashedly. "Can I see?"

"I don't know," I replied, opening the phone again. "He's afraid of you guys."

Beeper beeped, but I couldn't tell what it meant.

"Can it understand us?"

"Yea."

Dad had a hobby of working on… stuff. Anything (usually broken) he could get his hands on. That would explain why he wanted to see Beeper.

"Those're the things that went rampaging through _the city_?!" Mom asked incredulously. "That was _my truck_?"

"Not _them_ specifically… Something like them did––and then this blue wave was sent out in all directions, and then the cars came alive. That was your truck though, yea…."

She scoffed.

Dad quickly went to fill in for mom's lack of words, "We saw on the news that there was some form of government operation going on in the city, and that's when those creatures appeared. There have been all kinds of catastrophes involving those mechanical things, but several times they said it's under control. It looked like it was mostly in the center of the city, so I convinced your mother, since we couldn't easily contact you, to finish our trip first…It's not something we get to do often, you know…." He paused for effect as we switched roads, which I happened to notice we now moved onto the same one that Cam and I had taken to get to the house. We now followed it in the opposite direction. "But if there's lots here, then I can hardly believe the media was right this time around."

"Right, which is why we're moving," Mom said with forced happiness, despite her still too-pale face. Soon it became genuine though. "Oh, Viktor, you'll love it here. They actually have four seasons! And we saw this beautiful house…you could practically walk to the lake!" She brought dad's hand up to her face and kissed it.

Beeper beeped from my hand.

"What was that, Beeper?" Dad asked, smiling.

"Prob'ly trying to tell me something," I said, looking at the phone's screen again, thankful for a distraction. It read: "its 'there are' not 'there is'"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"ur dad said 'But if there is lots here,' he should've said 'If there are lots here,'"

"What is it?" Dad queried again.

Beeper soon switched to: "were almost there btw"

"He says we're almost there," I answered, excluding the first comment made by the cell.

We quickly walked in an awkward silence for only a few seconds before the next street on our side of the road became visible. After a minute more we got close enough, and thick bushes that looked like they belonged in a maze replaced the wild forest that populated uninhabited areas on the side of the road. Beyond those stubby bushes sat a squat building.

"A golf course!" Dad exclaimed, moving in first.

-o-

_Cougar_

I let Encephylon out once I came within visual range of the street where I would be turning. There were no humans waiting on the road as I had been informed, but there was a bit of wreckage dragged off to the side of the street. Transforming, I knelt down and pointed at the Shepherd, "Stay, Encephylon."

His ears drew back and he lay down in the tall grass, peering at me with sad eyes. Reminding myself of the gravity of the situation, I tromped over to the appointed turnoff and saw Cam fighting a blue mech of about his size. Grill was probably around the bend, just a bit further. I transformed one firing weapon on my right arm and took aim. The blue mech, noticing my presence and the gun I held pointed at him, dropped below his deadlock with Cam and transformed, a Pontiac now accelerating towards me. I quickly moved out of his way; if he wanted to run, let him run. But Cam had other ideas – he transformed as well. As he passed me, he said, "You help Grill tame Seether!"

I went up the street and around a turn to find some badly damaged asphalt, but no transformers. I went further and soon caught sight of a tall yellowish mech, and a slightly shorter and stockier red mech––the former presumably Seether, and the latter Grill. Seether held Grill up against several trees clustered closely together, many of the offended looking ready to fall backwards. As the tan colored 'bot noticed me, however, he turned his head and the trees pushed Grill back about a foot towards the taller mech. I asked, "Was it you who destroyed that gas station and the transformer in New Mexico?"

He stared hard at me. "That trash had to get in the way––and I was requested to dispose of it." He turned back to Grill and growled, pushing the Ford back a foot more again before releasing him and turning away from the two of us. Grill recovered and gave me a wary look before gazing deeply into Seether's back.

"Kind of like right now, huh, Seether?" Grill had to be delaying for time––he was using more words in addition to his usual, slow speech. "Something gets in and musses up your plans, and you don't even stop to think-"

"Shut up," Seether twitched, his right (and only) hand balling into a fist, and his lower left arm, which comprised of long thin fingers, curled inward as far as they could, making a sort of sickly deformed fist.

That's it––make him mad. He'll forget all about the humans! "And I suppose if Raizer asked you to attack––even though you're outnumbered," I began, walking towards him, "that you would do it––just because he told you to?" He was still facing away, ignoring me. "Is that why you're here? You're just his lapdog aren't you?" _Uh-oh._

Seether spun around, his claw of a left arm pulling some large barrel off his back then resting it on my chest. _P__erhaps I went too far?_ I barely registered it firing, then my optics caught something blue before offlining.

-o-

_V_

It took the three of us, not including Beeper, who I was carrying, a minute or two to walk over the long drive and parking lots that led up to the building. Dad, being the golf-fan that he was, reached a door first.

"That's odd; no lights are on in there," he said, trying one of the double doors. It was locked.

"Hey, you must be new here!" a man called to us from the half of the parking lot to our left as we turned around. He had a golf caddy in one hand, and a cap in the other. "That's the club entrance––the pro shop's on the other side!" With that, he walked up a concrete path that led around the left side of the building. Once he was out of sight, I heard a slight ringing as if to signify the door to the course store had been opened just on the other side. Mom and dad began to follow, but I paused. A flashy colored car caught my eye before I had turned my head from the parking lot. It was a bright green.

"Beeper," I said, turning the phone towards the car, "does that look familiar?"

Two tones emanated, which could easily be identified as: _Uh-oh_.

"Come on V," my dad called back to me. They were about to round the corner of the building.

"What are the odds?" A voice cackled gleefully from the asphalt, and a noise I had heard very often lately occurred––the _sh-chink_ing of shifting and changing metal.

"What the-" I could hear dad say, "Katherine!"

Mom must've run into the building, because I just caught dad rounding the corner of the shop, and then the ringing of the door opening on the building again as the transformation off to my left ceased.

"Not very smart, are they?" My attention went back to the transformer, which was a couple feet shorter than Cam or Raizer, about the height of the building, and had four legs instead of two radiating from its torso. He walked closer to both me and the building behind me, his four, clawed feet making a distinct repeating chorus. The Mitsubishi chuckled.

Making a split decision, I dashed for the entrance to the building, which the transformer now appeared to be headed for. If I could just tell mom and dad–

"No, you don't."

A heavily armored, acid green arm shot down towards me, and its three-fingered hand grabbed a hold of my vest via my back. "You don't need to die just yet, you ca-" He held me up to get a better look at me; I noticed it had four gleaming eyes in addition to its odd number of legs. Suddenly it's profoundly fanged mouth spread into a sort of grin of comprehension. "You're their kid!" he exclaimed, amused. "Seether didn't mention you!" It broke into a fit of slightly grating laughter, which started to annoy me.

"No, he wouldn't have," I said, kicking a plate of armor on the 'bot's chest that was within reach, "would he?"

The transformer finished laughing, but that sickly grin was still held in place. "I'm starting to wonder," he replied.

Beeper transformed from my hand and hitched onto the front of my shirt, beeping and pointing angrily at the much larger 'bot––something I didn't know he had the courage to do.

"Yea, whatever he said!" I yelled, pointing as well.

"Graphe," the Eclipse said quietly over his shoulder, "come out and see this cell phone."

Within a few seconds a black transformer about a foot tall came crawling over the larger, more chromatic transformer's shoulder.

Beeper made a weak noise as the six-armed mech, only twice his size (which wasn't bad considering how much larger all of the vehicle transformers were in scale to him), walked up the arm of the Spyder that held me. It stretched out from the Mitsubishi's armor to look at me, but seemed unwilling to get any closer via the large green arm. It then made a screechy noise, bending down off the armor more to look at Beeper next.

"I can't say I agree," the green robot said happily. "But do you see this youth? It's the kid of those people. Which reminds me…,"

Graphe made another screechy noise then departed, returning over the shoulder it had appeared from.

"Was it _talking_ just now?" I asked no one in particular as the Eclipse returned its attention to me.

"Yes," he replied, pulling out a grapefruit-sized sphere with its left, free, clawed hand. I noticed a smaller version of this arm receding as the metallic ball was raised, then saw a similar mini-appendage on the side that was holding me, only it was tucked up on his side, unused. Where the smaller arm had gotten the sphere from, I had no clue.

Rapid gunfire could be heard in the distance, and suddenly there was a _chirp _nearby, and the ball in the green 'bot's large, left palm expanded along a line that superimposed the circumference of the sphere.

"It'll be quick and painless if they're close enough to the blast…otherwise other circumstances, usually debris, will take them by force," he mused, staring at the sphere. "I would like to verify directly for Seether, but since they ran inside…well, buildings can be a bit messy. Let's go." He lazily tossed the sphere at the building, where it rolled to a stop at the nearest wall, which had several windows, then he turned and walked away, holding me more directly in front of him.

"Hey-" I could hardly comprehend fast enough what was happening. "What––How––You-"

It held one finger up to its spiky mouth, "Shh, I want to hear this…"

While I hung, trying to understand him, an explosion occurred, now some space behind us, at the building. Despite our growing distance, I heard a couple light _tink_s of flying debris hitting the robot's armor.

I held my arms up to protect myself as well, but only felt a few light particles collide. _Mom? Dad?_ I stretched out as far as I could. "Mom!" I yelled, wide-eyed. "Dad!" I kicked at the green chest-plate which was still within range. This spurred him to move me as far away from himself as he could hold me, saying, "Cute. Your reaction was not unexpected."

In my new position I couldn't see anything but the main road we now walked on, and the forest on its far side. I tried, in vain, to turn around, grabbing fruitlessly at the slick armor atop the claws/fingers that held me. Taking in this new scene, this new world, forever without my parents, I fell limp, as helpless as I was. "Mom?" I began to cry, "Dad…"

~End chapter 7~


	8. Chapter 8: Hole

Chapter 8: Hole

_For those left behind._

(o)

"Cause perfect only makes you crazy,

There is no way that it could save me,

I'm sick of feeling like a traitor,

is this the price of good behavior?"

-"Good Behavior" – Plumb

\|/_

_-o-_

_Biosnare_

Ignoring the human's breakdown, I said quietly and sweetly over a certain frequency, "Seether, guess what I found."

"Don't toy with me, Biosnare," Seether's disembodied voice came back at me from my torso, a little fuzzy.

"The humans are gone, goldilocks," I mocked with relish, hardly able to contain myself. Perhaps now Seether's obsession with those humans would be put to an end, and we wouldn't be stuck on the road for much longer. After all, Raizer's mysterious friend had promised a place to stay – and I wanted somewhere to set up…experiments.

"What?!" Seether yelled back through the radio, to my confusion. "How could you lose them– Where were they last spotted?! I'll hunt them down myself!"

Slightly amused that he interpreted my statement as thus, I went to clarify: "Calm down, I found them while they were entering a golf shop-"

"And WHAT?! You just let them get away?! All you had to do was catch them, Biosnare, which you assured me you could do! I will tear that building apart, brick-by-brick. And if they're not there when I am, then I'm tearing YOU apart next!" His rage was not encouraging.

"You don't understand, Seether," I tried to reassure my angry comrade; "they're gone as in they're _dead_. I have a witness." I turned the boy towards myself again and grinned at him, regaining my composure. And once Seether was done with the human, assuming there was anything left, the boy would be first on my list of experiments. There was so much to learn. Perhaps the reason Seether hadn't mentioned him was that the Chevy didn't realize the human's relationship, or he simply didn't remember the boy. Either way, hopefully once I got to Seether, the Chevy would disregard the small human, as before.

"WHAT?!" Seether yelled, louder than ever. Several shots were fired in the distance from where I was headed then the Silverado's angry yell pierced the air: both carried along by the atmosphere, and by my receiver. I, shocked at this reaction, stopped walking, turned down the radio, and retracted myself slightly. The spikes that graced the top of my head had probably appeared crestfallen for a moment before they propped up again as the yell faded. I was confused and afraid; Seether wanted the humans dead. He made that clear. So what if I didn't catch them alive? As long as the end result was the same, what did it matter? And that cannon of his – it was nearly the size of my torso! – if he were to use it on me…And the story Raizer told me about a mech in New Mexico – I kept myself from shuddering. Graphe, hiding within my back, was not so collected; I felt him transform back into a graphing calculator. He seemed to do that whenever he was afraid, maybe I should question him about it, find out if he does it voluntarily or not…But that would be for another day. For right now, I had to pacify the tall, yellowish mech whom I would soon be seeing. That, or stay away from him until his rage ebbed….

So then I continued walking, and spoke confidently to the offended, "You said-" But he cut me off before I could even begin an argument in my defense.

"You're _mine_!" Seether growled over the quieted radio.

"Tch," I sulked, turning off my receiver completely, "He should be more specific next time."

"Are you talking to me, you four-eyed freak?" the human I held asked angrily. "I hope he hunts you down like he did my parents – and I hope you _suffer_."

"Ha, now I know where he gets his personality from – if he had to live with you-"

"Biosnare," came Seether's angry and poisonous voice from the street ahead. He came stomping slowly nearer while I halted. "You reassured me you could capture them," the Silverado seethed.

"I did," I replied coolly. "It seemed like you were in a hurry, though, so I thought I'd just tie up the loose ends quickly." There was just a hint of a grin on my face now. Better not overdo it….

"What did you gain by killing them?" Seether accused, still drawing ever closer.

"The same thing I get whenever any others die- like at this town's center-" I was getting more amused by the moment as I recalled what I had been doing earlier in the day, "they won't know what's hit them once my explosives have gone off." Oh, I almost lost it; one laugh now might push Seether over the edge. I don't imagine I could pacify him, though, so why not enjoy it? I could outrun the Silverado, lose him, and then stick around town for a while to watch the light show….

"You couldn't leave well-enough alone, could you?" Seether seemed to be struggling to find words that fit his fury at this point.

He was closer than I would've liked, and I could feel the boy squirming in my grasp, possibly from the heat the mech was generating. He should probably check his coolant levels….Heh. "No, I couldn't resist," I said quickly, "just like you." I dropped the boy onto the grass at the side of the road and transformed; unable to see a way to keep him in my possession within my plan. I took off back the way we had come as soon as my wheels had gripped the pavement.

-o-

_V_

I almost had the wind knocked out of me from the fall, but a gasp of pain still managed to slip out. I sat up; Seether was looking at me. The heat he was giving off from whatever made him function was distressing, but I stared back. Though my mind was sort of in shock, I think I got around to putting up an indignant face. However, suddenly Seether snapped back to the asphalt and transformed, yelling, "Biosnare!" The heavy Chevy soon left my presence, and I was left nearly alone in the rough grass, crickets chirping in the nearby trees. Beeper, who ended up next to me, made a long, slow noise and stretched out over the slightly grassy patch where he lay. I simply sat there, allowing my breathing to resume a normal pace and my brain to think.

Not that I could focus on anything. My mind slipped from one thought to the next, hardly taking in any of it. Crickets, forest, Arkansas, Nevada, transformers, parents dead, transformers… What about…?

What about home? What would be done? Who would the house go to? What about my two years of school left? What about my future? My car..? The roof of the garage…? What about the GOVERNMENT?! Weren't they supposed to be doing something about this? Or the police? There was a murderer on the loose, and it could pass as an everyday sight! Except for maybe the paint scheme… But still-

My mind snapped back to where I was as a shadow fell over me. "Huh?" I asked, looking up, not comprehending.

"I requested as to the whereabouts of Katherine and Alexander, or, at the very least, Beeper," Grill said, concern visible on his metal facial features. "But you've already answered half of my question by your behavior, and I can see Beeper now." He paused. "How are you faring?"

I just plopped down across the grass like Beeper had. _Make it all disappear… _"Make it all go away," I mumbled after Beeper beeped one long slow note again. What's worse, when I got home, _if I got home_, I still had a paper and a half to do for school… "Aaaagh." I made an incomprehensible groan that was supposed to express the frustration I felt. I dared not open my eyes after I blinked, for fear it would all come rushing back…

_Ugh_… Sirens could be heard approaching. I heard the thump-thump of Grill's feet, then the transforming noise. The sirens went rushing past.

"They are going towards…" Grill trailed off. "Is anything left?" he asked warily after a long pause.

"I…" I could hardly bring myself to speak; my throat was dry. "I don't know."

A car could be heard approaching. It went past. A leaf blew onto my arm.

Beeper crawled into a lower pocket on my cargo pants and transformed.

Another car could be heard approaching – this one slowed down.

"Biosnare blew the place up," I finally said, wanting to share this with Grill before I had to face the police or anyone else.

I didn't hear anyone get out of the car. Just chill silence after it got off the asphalt and the engine quit.

_Silence._ I thought that's what I wanted – silence. But despite its presence, my brain refused to shut out morbid thoughts rampaging through my mind. It was inescapable.

"Are-" I heard Cam's voice, but he stopped. "Are you OK, V?"

I waited for the answer to come to me. "I don't know."

Again, both sweet and bitter silence but for the wind.

"Is Beeper OK?"

Couldn't they talk to him quietly? Why did they have to involve me?

"Beeper's fine, Camshaft. He was just startled; I'm sure he'll rejoin us on a frequency when he's ready." Grill said quietly.

"We can't just sit here and rust," Cam said slowly. "Don't you want to…to…" he stopped.

"No, I could just lay here. Lay here and die. What will I do if I go back to Mission City now? I don't even know what's going to happen to the house, or anything else. I can't take it, _I'm_ not old enough, and I don't have a job…"

Utter quiet. Even the cricket's omnipresent hum died out from my ears.

There had to be something. An image formed in my mind, a visualization of how my heart felt: torn from the middle to every corner. As I saw this I came to the realization that, though a large chunk just went missing, there was still heart left.

"My heart's not gone," I said, confused.

"I don't-" Cam began.

"Shh," Grill said quietly.

"What's that saying? That people say?" I asked openly, sitting up and looking at the two vehicles before me, one just visible behind and beneath the other. I was hardly aware of my speech.

"What goes up must come down?" offered Cam halfheartedly.

"No," I replied, rubbing my forehead slowly. "I can't remember it now…," I mumbled. "Alright, let's go."

"What?" Cam exclaimed, "But you just said-"

I got up and started walking towards the Highlands Golf Club.

"OK! I'm coming!" Cam said fast, starting his engine and pulling up beside me, allowing me to get inside.

"I'll fetch Cougar," was Grill's response. I heard his engine start as well, though he didn't follow us.

I saw the Golf Club in what only felt like a minute later. There was one fire truck there handling the situation. There was also a thin plume of smoke rising from close to the center of the building where the explosion hadn't been close enough to blow it apart, but where elements of the low structure had caught fire. Only small bits of charred debris remained of the part of the building closest to where the explosion had taken place, near the entrance of the store. A couple of nearby trees hadn't taken well to the blast either.

"What…happened?" Cam said extremely quietly as we pulled closer to the fire truck and its subject.

"Biosnare blew it up with a bomb," I said nearly as quietly and very slowly, leaning out Cam's open window when we pulled up beside the scene of the crime. Part of me couldn't understand or believe what I was saying; the other half was growling in derision and hate.

"Bio…?" Cam began, but quieted when a firefighter addressed me.

"Hey, can't you see the golf course is closed?" The bearded man huffed, walking over.

"I- I-" I stuttered, trying to think, "Was anyone hurt?" _There – that's not suspicious. Anybody could be curious about that…_

The firefighter narrowed his eyes then decided to tell me. "No- Only one person was inside, a worker, and he was far enough away from whatever blew up to only have suffered minor injuries as far as we're aware. You don't look like a reporter," He accused suddenly.

"I…I'm on a roadtrip…" I tried to act confident, but failed, so I changed the subject back to the one I was more concerned with: "Are you sure no one else was inside? Nobody was like… vaporized or anything?"

He started at my last sentence then resumed his composure. "Vaporized? You've been reading too many comic books young man." He looked at me for only a moment more before pulling a radio out of his belt then opened his mouth to speak into it.

He never got the chance, however, as Cam decided to leave – really fast. The firefighter outside stumbled backwards, down onto the pavement in shock. I was flung back into the seat.

"What're you-" I yelled, grabbing a hold of the steering wheel and trying to hit the brakes in reaction to the sudden acceleration. No part of the Camaro budged at my whim.

One police car just happened to be turning into the parking lot as Cam pulled out of it, rather recklessly, I might add, and attracted the individuals inside the cruiser's attention. Its emergency lights flared to life as well as the siren.

"Oh- Now you've done it," I said, giving up on trying to drive and looking out the rear-view mirror.

~End Chapter 8~


	9. Chapter 9: Reinforcements

Chapter 9: Reinforcements  
_For Mr. Blake_

"Deep in the recess of every man  
Is a thief – a robber – a criminal.  
Below the surface of every hero  
Is an envy, a restless evil."  
-"Evil (A Chorus of Resistance)" – Project 86

* * *

"V! From his perspective it sounded like you were the one who planted the bomb!" Cam cried, following the bending road closely as the police cruiser forced him to speed up.  
"I realize it could've been seen that way, but it's not like he could do anything to me!"  
"The police, V, the police! I heard the radio chatter as they were coming and –" he paused to slow down momentarily as we passed over a dip in the road, "Oh, I'm not going to lose you too, V!"  
"What?!" I exclaimed, staring at the steering wheel in front of me.  
"You don't honestly believe you're the only one affected by your parents' deaths?" Grill asked over Cam's radio. "Camshaft, pull over."  
"But-" the Camaro pleaded.  
"Stop, you're only getting into more of a mess," the Ford commanded. "Cougar and I'll be there shortly. Until then-" The radio turned off.  
"Did you just do that…?" I asked.  
"What do you think I should do, V?" Cam sounded worried.  
"What do I…? There's…nothing you can do, as far as I'm aware, except pull over…unless…. Did Grill really mean what he said? About my parents? Do you guys really –" I stopped talking and slumped down in the seat as Cam slowed. To my chagrin, my eyes felt wet.  
The black and white police car behind us decelerated as well; I received no response from Cam as the two policemen got out of their car, nearing the "arrest-me red" Camaro.  
"Stop! He didn't do it! It was the Eclipse!" Cam exclaimed. I sat up again, startled.  
One of the policemen apparently had his handgun out and misfired upon hearing the vehicle's voice; the shot ricocheted off something hard nearby, it sounded like. "I-i-it's o-one of them!" the uniformed man exclaimed, dropping his gun and running none too gracefully back to his car.  
The other police officer stopped where he was and asked, "Who said that?"  
When no one replied, he slowly made his way up to the driver's side door, behind which I sat, extremely nervous. I felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of my head as he came into my peripheral vision.  
"No, Doug, don't!" called the officer who had run back to his car. "It's one of those things from Mission! I'm telling the dispatcher to get the military out here; stay away from it!"  
The uniformed man named Doug next to Cam and myself looked apprehensive, then turned his head back to his buddy for a moment. "But there's a kid inside!"  
_Why does everybody call me a kid?_  
"I heard they can make it look like there're people! Get away from it!" The more flustered officer continued frantically.  
"What's a military?" Cam whispered.  
"C'mon out of the car," Doug called nervously to me.  
I complied, slowly, though I'm sure Cam would've liked otherwise. I guess he figured I could always crawl out the window if he hadn't let me unlock the door.  
"That's right," the officer said, "put your hands up behind your head and walk over to the cruiser, slowly."  
As I did so, Doug followed, and Cam transformed.  
"I don't know if I like the military," my car said, as I spun around in time to see him picking up the policeman.  
"Stop, Cam!" I said, holding up my hands in the appropriate "stop" gesture. It was ineffective, though, as the red Camaro went back to the cruiser next and nearly plucked the other officer from there as well. A familiar old Ford came down the road then though, and he likewise commanded my car.  
"Stop," Grill ordered, transforming as he drove near.  
"Where's Cougar?" Cam asked, half holding the one peace officer out of his black and white car, the other held off to the side, some feet off the ground.  
"I tell you to pull over, and you do so. What do you do next? Harass the officers! Honestly, I can't-"  
"He was going to take V away," Cam said in his defense, holding up Doug. "And he called something," Cam tugged at the officer still holding onto his car. The man lost his grip and ended up hanging from Cam's hand by one leg, yelling.  
"Cam!" I shouted, "Put him down- or at least-"  
The Camaro looked confused.  
"The blood's going to rush to his head,"  
Cam stood up and manipulated the hanging man so that he now sat in the Chevy's palm. "Is that better?"  
I stood limp, speechless. An SUV went blazing past, and Beeper, who apparently saw it go by, beeped in a high tone and buried himself in my pocket again.  
"That's not good," Cam mumbled.  
"Now; what happened?" Grill asked me, a little faster than usual.  
"We were at…" -I couldn't bring myself to mention it- "…the place, and I was talking to a firefighter, to see if they rescued anyone. Cam freaked out and went roaring past that police car, and they followed."  
"Why?"  
"It sounded like V was the one who set up the bomb," Cam said, looking between me and Grill, "and then on the radio, 'cause that police car came in range, I heard them talking. I guess whoever reported the explosion also said that right before that they had seen some new people in the area. And I guess everybody knows everybody here, so that's why they might think that the strangers did it. Of course, then V said he was on a road trip which would've told the fire-guy he wasn't from around here anyway, and then…I went away," he finished lamely.  
Throughout this, the police officers were mostly silent. They made a few gasps at the appropriate times (such as Grill's transformation), but were otherwise highly stock-still and quiet.  
Everyone else stayed quiet once Cam appeared finished speaking too. I stood, looking at the two huge, red, metallic beings. Cam stood and moved his left foot nervously, looking at the ground while one policeman hung from his shirt in the Chevy's right hand, and another cop sat palely in the other, jaw slack. Grill was staring in one of these cops directions, his arms folded as best they could.  
"Are you telling me," the unnamed policeman sitting in Cam's palm said hoarsely, "that none of you didn't do it?"  
"Well, no," Cam said, slightly upset. "That's why I didn't want anyone to suspect V, it was the short, spidery Transformer hanging out with Raizer who blew up the building, and…" Cam dipped his head again.  
Maybe they really did care about mom and dad. But certainly Beeper couldn't have had it that bad – he was relatively new, after all. Only a month or so old – an early birthday present…._That's right, I forgot my birthday's in a few weeks. Well, what a way to end Sweet 16, eh?_  
Cam looked up suddenly, so I turned around to see what caught his attention. Cougar was coming towards us, on all fours, like an animal. He wasn't traveling very quickly, Encephylon was keeping pace beside him. Why didn't he just transform and come with Grill? Didn't he know-?  
"Might want to hurry," Cougar huffed once he was close enough for me to hear him, "I know at least one woman saw me, though I think I got past the wrecked building without notice." Soon Cougar was back on two legs again, standing beside Grill, though keeping one hand on a thick tree.  
"Why didn't you just…?" Doug, the hanging policeman, asked.  
"Transform?" Cougar leaned a bit closer to the man. "Cam, what are you doing to them?"  
"Making sure they don't take V," he replied rather stolidly.  
Cougar gave the red car a sideways glance, but didn't ask questions.  
"Tell your dispatcher not to send the military," Cam said to the officer in his palm.  
"They called the military?" both Grill and Cougar said at the same time.  
Cougar was the only one who kept talking though, sounding rather concerned. "It'll be too late for that.... I'm sure more police will arrive any time now. And if the military isn't on their way already, I think that a few more witnesses might do it. We need to go."  
"Where?" I asked, "We don't know where the other Transformers have gone. What if the government can help us?" Everyone looked incredulously at me after I said that. "What? What are you suggesting? That you take me back to Mission? And then what? What am I gonna do, huh?" I looked at each of the individuals in turn. "I'm not old enough to do anything legally yet, except drive, and I don't even have a _car_ to drive anymore!" Cam looked away after that. I heard Beeper from my lower pants pocket, and I felt him come out a bit; he hung over the lip of the pocket rather lamely, executing a few miserable notes. I looked down at him. The thing looked so pathetic; his tiny metal parts appeared so fragile, yet much of him was still whole, or covered in larger, thicker bits of armor or plating or whatever it was called.  
For the umpteenth time that day I heard more sirens. Nobody moved except the officers, who did their best to see who was coming. No one said anything either. We simply stood there as two police cruisers pulled up; one ended up almost behind me, off the road, and the other stayed behind Grill, meaning we were partially encircled (the trees were very thick, forming a third wall).  
"Put the men down!" One woman said, getting out of a cruiser with her handgun ready. There were another two officers in the other car that also pulled out their weapons.  
Cam lowered both men and let them go, a sad look on his features.  
"It's all right," Doug said, dusting himself off. The other released prisoner went to his comrades.  
"All right_?_" the woman officer asked, "All right? Are you _blind_?" She nudged her pointed weapon at the Transformers.  
"No," Doug replied calmly, "not anymore."  
The other officers looked at each other questioningly.  
"They're victims and witnesses to what caused that explosion I was called out to," Doug clarified.  
"You _believe_ them?" The previously hostaged policeman queried.  
"That wasn't an act, what they did," Doug said. "I don't know everything, but I know they aren't bad. C'mon, put the guns down."  
The woman appeared appalled but lowered her weapon once the others did.  
"What happened?" Doug looked at me and asked.  
"Biosnare," my voice was a little hoarse, so I cleared it, "murdered my parents." My fists clenched at my sides as I stared into the ground.  
"Beeper was there," I heard Cam say quietly, "he's a witness too."  
Beeper made a noise, crawled up to my shoulder, and sat there. I looked up and he beeped. His frowning emoticon face transferred to text: "Get me to a computer; ive got video"  
Doug came over to us and looked at the phone.  
"A computer…" I mumbled.  
Beeper then showed a bit of video; I turned away as Biosnare appeared on the small screen.  
"That's it, huh?" Doug said pensively as one of the newly arrived and unnamed cops, a rather young one, came over to see. "It looks creepy."  
The viewing was interrupted as the sound of helicopter blades rose out of the more natural noises surrounding us. Everyone looked up; Cam and Cougar shrank back into the shrubbery a bit. Soon, three small helicopters came into view above the trees, a stark contrast to the nearly pure grey sky.  
"The Army," Cougar said, his voice just audible over the din.

~End Chapter 9~


	10. Chapter 10: Dogs

Note: A'ight peeps. This fanfiction now [un?]officially follows the 2007 movie continuity over the 2009 one. Anything in the sequel that contradicts the first will be ignored. Why? To avoid the plot holes that went along with it.

* * *

Chapter 10: Dogs

_For Kiera_

(~)

"I hope you feel what I feel,

I hope you see what I see."

-"My Heart Bleeds" – Blood Bought Ent.

_\|/_

* * *

"Thank God," the woman sighed, "Reinforcements."

The helicopters paused overhead, the three of them fanning out to surround our group, each one pointed in.

"What do we do?" Cam asked as they lowered.

"Don't move!" I shouted, wanting to make sure I was heard. I felt Beeper's tiny fingers clinging to the fabric on my shoulder.

One of the helicopters landed, the other two stayed airborne and pointing at us. From the grounded chopper came a uniformed man; he came close enough to be heard, but stayed far enough away so that he could be addressing anybody. He turned to address the Transformers, however, and asked, "Are you Autobots?"

I looked at my tall friends. Grill looked at Cougar, who shrugged. Cam merely stood still, to my relief.

Then Grill asked the man, "Autobots?"

"That will have to wait for later," he replied. "Where are you from? How old are you?"

_What?_ What kind of question was that?

"Mission City, Nevada. Approximately four days." Grill replied obediently.

"Good. We need you to follow us somewhere less…populated. Will you?" He had looked to all of the robots by the end of his sentence.

The Transformers all looked on one another, then both Grill's and Cam's glowing bluish eyes rested on me. The army guy followed their gaze and watched me as well. Slowly, I nodded.

"Yes," Grill said in addendum, for all to hear.

"Good." The uniformed man made himself heard, visited the many police officers, and then re-entered his helicopter. It joined the pair already in flight.

"That guy creeps me out," Cam said, coming over to me.

"That was odd," Cougar said, getting away from the forest and nearing the thin strip of asphalt. Grill had already transformed and began following the one helicopter which followed our road, away from the blasted building and into territory we had not yet explored. Cougar got down on all fours again, apparently unwilling to transform, then began to follow the pair of vehicles. Encephylon was at his side.

Cam then transformed and left his door open for me; Doug jogged over to the female officer and told his fellows, "Let's go!" When only one officer moved he continued: "Even if you don't believe me, then you need to pursue your suspect." They grumbled something about the army but complied, and so I got into Cam, finding Beeper sitting in the cup holder of the center console, arms around his lower legs like an odd fetal position.

Cam asked, "Do you want to drive?"

Feeling slightly guilty about what I said, but still stubbornly wanting to prove my point, I said: "Are you sure? I might not remember _how_ to drive."

After a slight pause he stated, "Just remember to let the clutch out _slowly_ and I won't leave you on the side of the road with Beeper."

At that Beeper began a frenzy of tones, standing up in the cup holder and gesturing angrily at the radio.

"It's OK, Beeper, I wouldn't mind being left alone with you. You're better at navigation anyway."

"Hey!" Cam cried whilst Beeper rejoiced. I put the Camaro in gear and left.

* * *

-o-

_Raizer_

"_Take me hooooome, country roooooad. To the plaaaace I beloooong-"_

"Oh, _ferme la bouche_!" I yelled at the Eclipse playing music loudly behind me. "You weren't this annoying for the five hours you were with us on the way _there_. Can't you be as quiet on the way back?"

"I'm surprised you were the first to snap," Biosnare giggled. "I thought for sure Seether was going to have my neck back there. Now he's as quiet as Graphe. What's with the French anyway?"

I sent over the radio so as not to yell, "I don't think Seether's listening. He won't respond while we're driving unless you get his attention somehow. And," I added angrily, "loud, obnoxious music won't do it, since he listens to his own. Which, I might add, is nearly as bad as your own tastes."

"Oh, don't like John Denver, do you?" he responded over the same frequency. "It's good to know what I can use in the future then…. Why; what do you listen to?"

"Assuming I listen?"

"Yes, of course."

"_Blanc ou noir comme toi-_"

"Oh, please. You even _listen_ to French music? Hah! Honestly, what's your infatuation with it?"

"It's not an infatuation. It's my first language."

We drove in silence for a moment before someone else from our party joined in with an emotionless voice.

"It's that woman whom he belonged to before activation. She was from France."

"You know," Biosnare began, "I never caught your name."

"Vicegrip." The forest green Expedition identified himself.

"And you know this _how_?"

"I landed on her garage."

"Landed?"

"Landed."

I didn't feel the need before now to expose Vicegrip, whom stayed "in the shadows," even from the rest of our group, up until now. Currently he was at the tail of our train heading west. He had previously taken a northern route to Arkansas, so he wasn't there when we picked up Biosnare in Texas. Furthermore, I only spoke with him in Arkansas over an encrypted, private channel of his until we met up again to leave when Seether was storming after the Spyder. I was awed, considering Biosnare's apparent curiosity, at how he hadn't asked before then. Of course, it was wise of him not to hold us up earlier with that question. "He's not from here," I started revealing, "he's one of our race who hails from our real home."

"Which would be…?" Biosnare asked.

"Another planet." Vicegrip said plainly.

"Mars?" The bright green one asked.

Vicegrip laughed; not something I expected from him. "Hardly," he replied. "I don't know what the best translation would be for its name. That's not my specialty, nor my responsibility. It's much farther away though, I can tell you that."

"Does it _have_ to be your responsibility, for you to translate it? What are you translating from?"

Vicegrip replied – in an alien tongue.

"I see. Any chance I can download it?"

"How long are you going to ask questions?" Graphe suddenly piped up. The calculator was with Biosnare when we met him. He hardly left the Eclipse or even made his presence known, so this was surprising. So far, only Seether had not spoken on this part of the trip, though you could sometimes hear his music playing.

"Get off the frequency if it bothers you," Biosnare said snidely.

* * *

-o-

_Cam_

We made it in one piece to the clearing where the first helicopter and Grill had stopped. Everything went fine with the drive except one moment when V missed third gear… but it was nice being able to think about other things (for the most part) and not having to worry about veering out of my lane or into the trees that were everywhere.

As much as I didn't want to think about the present, I couldn't help but wonder if we would get to pay our respects to V's – and my – parents. I couldn't remember much about what little time I must have spent at the dealership or factory anyway. Maybe it was better V was driving – he's had too much time to think about it, and I haven't thought about it enough. Would there be little crosses we could visit?

Camshaft: :Grill?:

Grill: :Yes?:

Camshaft: :What are we going to do? I think V was right. It's not like we can really help him…:

Grill: :I don't know. [_How come he could come off so normal though? When I look at him I can't tell if he cares at all._]* That's what we followed these officials for though: maybe we can work something out with them.:

Camshaft: :Maybe….:

The space where we were stopping was off an apparently rarely used road. The street sign was old and crooked, and the asphalt was cracked a lot. The lot looked like it had been recently cleared though, and a tractor was near some of the various greenery still in tact.

"You go ahead and park where you want, I have no clue where you wanna be," V told me, letting go of the steering wheel.

I pulled up beside Grill so that he was between me and the landed helicopter. Cougar was sitting down across from us, petting Encephylon. The police pulled up, one by me (making me nervous) and the other by Cougar, who watched them as they got out. When the other two helicopters landed on the other side of the black and white cars, I transformed knowing V was out and Beeper was ready. It was like being back in the garage, all boxed in….

I nudged Grill when he didn't transform. "Are you online?"

"Yes." He said.

"Well, let them know you're not phasing out over here."

Grill: :You tell them. I won't transform except for an emergency; I want to save what little fuel I have left so that you won't have to bring me some.:

Camshaft: :That would be lame.:

"Uh, he's listening," I pointed to Grill and said to the guys who got out of the first helicopter (including the guy from earlier) and were watching us, "He's just…"

"Tired," Cougar put in; I nodded.

The man I recognized tilted his head to others at his side, which then went over to the police. A few people came out of the other two helicopters, simply standing near them. "Well, first off, I'm Staff Sergeant Austen."

In this short pause, Cougar spoke up with his own introduction, "Cougar; and this is Encephylon." He referenced himself and the dog at his side. Austen nodded stiffly.

When no one else spoke and eyes were drifting our way, I said, "I'm Camshaft."

"V."

"Grill."

"And," I said, reaching behind my neck only to find the little guy shivering, "Beeper." He eluded me then crawled on the back of my hand, and I pulled him forward so Austen could see. He locked himself in a standing position, or glitched that way or something. I tried to make sure he didn't fall over then, so I brought him back to myself after only a moment. As soon as I covered him he crawled up through and around my back behind my neck again, so he could just see over my shoulders.

After a little more quiet the Sergeant continued, "Very well, where do I begin?"

"How about explaining what you mentioned earlier," Grill piped up. "Autobots."

"Autobots:" Austen began, watching Grill, "one of two main factions of your species which travelled to earth in search of the Allspark." He stopped then started again: "Their leader is Optimus Prime. He is working with us."

"And the other faction?" Cougar requested.

"Decepticons." The guy looked to the ground. "They came looking for the Allspark and their missing leader, Megatron, who is now out of commission. The Autobots sought the Allspark, a cube, to keep it from the Decepticons, who sought to use it to become more powerful. That cube," Austen looked up at me, "brought you all to life."

"That made the blue-wave thingy everyone was talking about?" I looked around to everyone else.

"Is that what knocked off the network as well?" Cougar asked.

"No. That had Decepticon origins. It was a virus planted while they were still searching for Megatron and the Allspark."

"So the Allspark was at the center of Mission City on that day – and both Autobots and Decepticons were there?" Cougar continued looking for information.

"Yes. They were the one's fighting, and the reports put out about the testing done by Mendelson Robotics is a cover up, as you might imagine."

"Don't you think there's a problem with that though?" V asked, apparently a little angry. "Don't you think people could be in danger because of it? What about all the robots loose…? What if Biosnare's only the beginning?" He was working himself up.

"It's not my job to question my orders; it's my job to accept that there is information I don't have – and to work with what I'm given." He didn't really come off as mean, especially once he talked again: "It's not as if we're sitting here twiddling our thumbs." His voice got quieter. "I know that the Autobots are working with the new robots, and I know Optimus Prime and his group are working on taking out remaining Decepticons, one-by-one."

V looked put out.

"How many are there, though?" I asked, concerned. "And how many of us were made?"

"I have no way of knowing," the Sergeant said simply. "But think about it – the total number of known robots just increased by –" he stopped, I guess to count, "at least five since I've met you. And every day, more and more are coming out in the open, or are getting caught doing things they shouldn't be."

"But nobody hears about it," V said, angry.

The man sighed. "Can you imagine what might happen if everyone _did_ know about it? The riots, the boycotts, the bans that people might demand - because we can't give them all the information, it's best they don't know of any of it."

V didn't say anything. He was just staring at the man, arms crossed.

"So," Grill was talking again, "why have you given us this information?"

"Our hope is that you will choose to work with us, and with the Autobots as well."

"So, what," I asked, "You just want us to fight for you? Is it even about Biosnare anymore?"

"The first thing you would do after meeting with a representative of the Autobots is help us in tracking that group down."

"But," Cougar said quietly, "we'd be doing it in your name, and under your rules…"

"…Yes." The man replied warily.

"…and you could do with us what you want after that? Would we merely be military dogs due to our existence? Do we have no freedom? No rights?"

"You have a choice-"

"Between what?" Cougar asked, absently stroking his dog, "join you and live, or rebel and be destroyed? Or maybe hide in the shadows as vehicles from everybody, and avoid this battle altogether? We didn't ask to be brought into this war."

"Neither did all of earth. This is no longer just the Autobots and Decepticons' war anymore; it was brought to this planet and regardless of whether we want to be a part of it or not, it's here, and it's happening around us. Right now we can't afford to have you running around. No, you don't officially have rights yet, but you never will unless you cooperate. It's only because of the Autobots that we aren't attempting to exterminate you all. Maybe it'll only be because of you that you get any rights in the future. I don't know. It's your choice." And with that, he left to the helicopters and people at the edge of the clearing near the decrepit road.

I cursed and tapped my chin. "We're sort of stuck."

"Yes," Cougar said, no longer rubbing Encephylon, "we are in quite a spot…. Go with them and die on the battlefield against our own kind, say no and be shot, or blow them up first, get revenge on the mechs we're following, _if_ we can still find them, then eventually get caught and blown apart ourselves. Not really a win-win situation, is it?"

Grill: :What will happen to Viktor? He wasn't even mentioned.:

Cougar: :I don't know if even the Sergeant can tell us that. I can't imagine they have protocol about such things.:

While they were debating that I put my hand around V, pulling him towards me a little bit. "Grill and Cougar will figure out something," I said as he looked up to me. I felt Beeper come out of hiding and look down too.

"Aww," he beeped quietly.

* * *

-o-

_Grill_

"Have you made a decision?" Austen asked after coming back over. Many of the uniformed men came with him this time.

"We have…" Cougar said slowly, looking towards me, "…one question to ask before we announce our choice."

"Shoot."

"What will happen to V?"

"He'll go with you, of course." Much of our pent up tension was released; both Camshaft and Cougar were visibly relieved, and Cam even mimicked a human sigh. "At least until the situation becomes aggravated enough to where he'll be put in serious danger."

"What?" Camshaft asked, "I won't let him get hurt – besides, if Seether is after him then he'll be safer with us, won't he?"

"But Seether doesn't care about me, remember?" Viktor reminded the Camaro, "he left me back in Mission, and when he came after Biosnare, he left me then too."

"He went after Biosnare?" Cam asked, confused.

"Because of what he did," the boy clenched his fists and closed his eyes. "Seether said he wanted Biosnare to catch them, and when he did more than that – Seether was angry.

"Biosnare kept me from running in after mom and dad, and took me away as he blew it up. Then when Seether found us, Biosnare left me, turned tail, and ran. Seether went after him and left me. That's how I got on the side of the road. Seether's had too many opportunities to kill me if he'd wanted to."

"That doesn't make sense though." Cam was still baffled. "Why – Why did he want mom and dad gone in the first place? And why just them and not you?"

Trying to return us to the topic at hand, I said, "I've already given you my opinion and explanation of the matter; for now we merely need to let Staff Sergeant Austen know if we have chosen to join him or not."

"I'm going with V, wherever he goes," Cam stated.

"I will help your effort ," Cougar said specifically to the Staff Sergeant.

"As will I, as long as I remain with Camshaft and Viktor."

"And the phone?" the man asked, looking up at Cam, and, consequently, Beeper.

Beeper made himself visible to Austen then pointed to his transportation.

"You're with him?" Austen asked, referring to Camshaft. "All right, and what about you, young man? It's looking as if most of them have pinned all their choices on you."

Viktor looked sternly at the more mature human, "I want Biosnare dead. He's gonna pay for what he did to my parents."

"Very well…we'll work out the details once we figure out where his group has gone."

-o-

~End Chapter 10~

* * *

* Brackets indicate a thought process (of the current character we are inhabiting) occurring during message interpretation since splitting the message up could change the tone or meaning.


	11. Chapter 11: Get Ready

I need a new editor/beta reader. :( My last one is AWOL, and i haven't found any replacements yet.... Get the message to me somehow if you or someone you know can help. :)

As such, this chapter has not gone through an editor, but simply myself (several times)...hopefully it's up to par (sometimes we make big changes when editing). Sorry for the long wait, it's been typed (otherwise finished) for months, but I was just waiting for an editor.

* * *

Chapter 11: Get Ready

_For Stripedwine_

(~)/

"Welcome to the lights of the big casino,

Baby don't you know that cash is king?"

-"Get Ready (Hot Machete)" – Jonezetta

\|/

* * *

_Seether_

The place was decrepit. An absolutely unfit location for any creature's home – yet Raizer assured us there was no better location in Mission City. The abandoned hotel and casino was large enough to house us, to be sure, but there were still many issues this did not solve, including a reliable fuel source. Biosnare was making the best of it though, claiming the empty swimming pool area as his "room." Meanwhile, Raizer wandered about, prattling on about what he knew of the place before it was closed (he probably wasn't even built while it was still open though, so his information was useless data from the internet most likely); eventually he choose an upper floor in a less damaged area of the buildings to retire in. Graphe, of course, couldn't be pried from Biosnare's side, so he could be found in the Olympic-sized hole in the ground too. Vicegrip was all very quiet about it all, saying he'd prefer to stay in the foyer right behind the façade of the "casino" building to keep watch for any intruders. Myself - once alone - I found a closed dining room: tables and chairs pushed up against the walls in various states of disrepair, one of the chandeliers fallen and bits of its crystal reflecting the light from my headlights and optics. It wasn't near the center of the building, but its windows were also blocked, and, therefore there was no reason for anybody to know I was there. I had to expand the entryway a little to get in without kneeling or transforming, but the space would allow me to recooperate for a while.

-o-

_Vicegrip_

"Yoo-hoo…"

_He's tapping my hood – what does he want? Ok, business face…grr…_

"Anybody home Grippy?"

I transformed.

"I thought you said you were keeping _watch_? And here I find you nonresponsive…."

"So what if I was offline, sparkling? Should I have been wary of you?" I asked mutely.

"Uh-huh," Graphe nodded vigorously from the Eclipse's shoulder.

"Shh," Biosnare said to him quietly. "Offline." He spoke to me again. "Sparkling. I'll have to remember that. Any other funny terms you want to share?"

"What did you want?" I asked bluntly, ignoring the small side conversation.

The larger of the two other mechs gave me a sideways glance. "Raizer said it was important." He turned his head to the other side and looked at the floor. "We gather in the forum – with the huge sun-roof, so the whole town'll know we're here." He winked his larger pair of optics. I noticed the lower, smaller set hardly ever twitched.

"Very well." I turned to head in that direction.

"What is with you?" Biosnare stopped me. "One moment you're an impenetrable iron fortress, the next you've got more humor up your armor than I do, which is saying something."

I stared at him.

"Like that," Graphe reaffirmed.

"Ha ha," I annunciated slowly, giving the green mech a hardy pat on the back, "that's a good one. Rewrite my programming why don't you?" I turned and began towards the forum.

"He's been exposed to star radiation too long," I heard as I left. It wasn't any of his business to know why I saw fit to change personalities. Though he'd catch on sooner or later anyway.

The two buildings we occupied weren't difficult to map out, though maneuvering in some locations was bothersome. As I neared the largest space in the building where we were requested to gather, I came across Seether, whom did not acknowledge me. He brushed some debris off of himself (apparently he had found tight spaces in the structure as well) and continued on into the room ahead of me while I stood watching. Soon Biosnare came up behind me though, so I continued into the forum.

Inside I found Raizer seated atop a large slab of collapsed opposing wall, acting almost as a sentinel with his headlights on over we followers below. He could not hide his pleasure as all of our small faction gathered, looking expectantly towards him. Letting the silence pressure us for a moment, he crushed a smallish piece of debris in his hand before speaking.

"Have I got a surprise for you," he looked around at us all. "I have a contact, who has a contact- Well, long story short, these two 'bots are the reason I knew about this place, and it just so happens they've both…er…become _unwelcome_ at where they were staying, so they will be arriving shortly. After they attend to some other _matters_."

Seether voiced my opinion, "You considered that worthy of dragging us together here?"

"Oh, you won't be disappointed," Raizer twitched a smirk, jumping down from his perch.

I felt an overwhelming sense of irony as I was reminded of his rather small stature – I was the largest figure present (even with my mass fairly condensed), yet in my past I had never followed one smaller or less powerful than myself. If he was any wiser though, he'd know I wasn't following him for any more reason than it was convenient for me….And perhaps my convenience would change soon, if Raizer's contacts were any good.

"I've instructed them to land in one of our buildings – if you weren't aware, there's a gaping hole that travels from the roof of the hotel attachment into the ground floor of this casino part of the buildings, albeit in not the most direct fashion. They know about it now, and that should hopefully dull their arrival so as not to wake the neighbors."

Considering we were well within the commercial part of Mission City, it was unlikely that many people were in the area at the dead of night, and even less likely that they would be recooperating in the neighboring structures.

"Land?" Graphe asked, "What do you mean _land_? They can fly? How is it absolutely no one will see them?"

"We can have a few witnesses, Graphe," Biosnare remarked, "It's not like no one saw us get here."

"But we can't _fly_," Graphe retorted, "we stand out a lot less."

"Ah – here he comes…" Raizer put in, looking towards the sky roof after making hhis remark. Apparently he had a seperate, secure communication with them. I hadn't detected anything on readily available frequencies.

"Just one?" Seether asked.

"The other one is still cleaning up," Raizer said, narrowing his optics and looking at the exit only a moment before dashing towards it – right between all of us. His speed surprised me yet again.

I barely caught the sound of helicopter blades before they silenced – and then the building shuddered in a great tremor.

"He didn't say how big they were, did he?" Graphe asked schreechily.

Biosnare laughed quietly at the small mech on his shoulder then headed for the exit of the room where Raizer had disappeared to. Both Seether and myself followed shortly afterward.

The hole began on the side of the bottom floor near the rear of the casino building, before we reached the pool room Biosnare had claimed; we all stopped behind Raizer in front of this large hole (clearly a very large figure had been through there; were we that close to where the fight had occured in the city?), whom was staring at it expectantly. It indeed was not a straight shot for the roof, because we could not see the sky nor the mech who had dropped in recently. He could be heard though – both him and his effect on our environment – through the _thump-thump_ing of his feet on uncertain floors above and his joints flexing as he wound his way down towards us. Soon the noises paused as he dropped a floor, crossed an area, then headed for where we were all staring - except Graphe who was looking around nervously, apparently afraid the building would collapse around him.

Slowly, a large dark grey foot appeared above us for a moment, then the mech dropped down on the floor above us rather gracelessly, sliding a bit further down on debris, noticing us, then coming down to the ground floor and standing erect – a little shorter than the un-holy roof the rest of us stood under. He was probably twice my size, and was varying shades of grey armor with two sets of three blades each on his two fairly long arms, like my own.

Now _that_ was the kind of leader I was used to following. At least, if he had any processing power to back him up.

"Welcome," Raizer said grandly, facing us and showing off the new mech, "Crossfire."

"At your service," he clearly replied in a voice only slightly deeper than the one I was using for the time being.

I used a human whistle to express my first impression.

"I assume _you're_ Raizer," Crossfire stated, ignoring me and watching the blue GTO.

"Indeed."

They shook hands in the human fashion, then Raizer turned again to us: "Please, let me introduce – "

"Biosnare," The small mech crawled forward quickly. Only moments before he had a slight expression that led me to believe he thought I was as large as our race achieved – hah! – then seeing Crossfire, and now he was grinning widely as usual, offering his own three-fingered hand up – though he offered his left.

Quietly after they had their to-do's, Graphe screeched his name. Crossfire offered him his finger to shake, and the tiny 'bot took it in all three of his right arms and shook, almost imperceptibly, before releasing and looking back at the next mech he expected to introduce himself –

"Seether." He showed no signs of moving except to give a curt nod, which Crossfire returned.

"Aaaand, Vicegrip," I flourished a quick bow before offering my own two-fingered hand in the native's fashion.

"The alien," he remarked before taking my offer.

I slung forward the short blade on my offered hand, resisting Crossfire's pull away once he reacted. Quickly, I spun around his huge lower arm and pulled out the dagger (which did not move forward enough to touch the newcomer), with my free hand and held it up to measure the three long helicopter blades which pointed up from outside his arm's armor. "Phew, look at that," I said, still holding Crossfire's arm, though he no longer resisted (as if I should call it resistance – he could easily pick me up if he wanted to), and looked down at me quizzically. "Can you _imagine_ the fury he could unleash in a battle –"

"I don't fight," he said clearly.

"What?" I expressed the largest amount of shock I could manage on my face without my mask.

"Why do you think he got here first?" Raizer smirked.

"Then what _do_ you do?" I asked; I had assumed the amount of armor he had plus his unaltered blades meant he was fit for battle.

"Mechanic." He gave me a look that said I shouldn't have assumed otherwise.

"A medic….well, I suppose you need them too…" I grumbled, putting away my dagger and taking a step away from his broad side.

"Really." Seether looked slightly incredulous. "We can take care of ourselves. Besides – doesn't your girth get in the way?"

Before sparks could fly (not literally, of course), Raizer stepped between everyone and said, "While we're waiting for your comrade, Crossfire, how about we take you to a more…" he chose his words carefully, "open location?"

"Very well," he agreed.

-o-

_Cougar_

We were finally heading back to Mission City. Earlier, before we left the clearing, a reluctant Beeper (making V come along) went into one of the helicopters shortly then came out with our destination. One could only imagine how he had conversed with the military about tracking our adversaries so quickly, or how he knew where they were ultimately headed. Regardless, we had taken a slight detour from the path we took while on the way here. We traveled to a military base (called "Fort Leonardwood") and exchanged the helicopters for a ground crew who would be escorting our unlikely group. I also made sure to feed Encephylon before we left there, though it wasn't exactly_ I_ who fed him since we had no where to go to transform without being seen. Apparently not even the all of the military personnel knew (or were allowed to know) about us.

Still, our trip was rather less pleasant than the one we took before. Camshaft was visibly aggravated, even as a Camaro, so I thought it best to leave him alone. Everyone travelled in silence except for when we stopped to refuel. V kept busy by answering questions prodded at him by someone in the military who joined us at the base, except when Cam insisted on taking V himself. No communication was to be held over any open frequencies, so options were limited anyway. The remarkably more stiff relationship everyone shared dissolved once we finally reached Mission City though, early in the morning.

-o-

_Raizer_

Crossfire was quite satisfied with the large sun-roofed room we had previously met in, which was beginning to lighten with the coming day. So much so that, after he found out about the spaces we had each taken to inhabiting, he requested if he may base any and all of his work here, in the meeting room. I quickly took to his offer as his partner arrived. Deciding not to leave the room but simply send instructions to the newcomer, I informed our group as we waited for his form to emerge in the large archway unblocked by debris. His head appeared first, at the top of the doorframe, then his body followed and showed that he was taller even than Crossfire (though only by a foot or two), and had to duck probably everywhere on site but in this room. He was a clean white with red and blue accents, thinly built (which is why he was so tall - his mass was directed upwards) and with long thin curvatures rising from his two fore toes. A jet engine thrust straight through his chest from the top front of his torso and out the back of the bottom.

He came in and stood erect, looking down at us all proudly. "What a bunch of trash," he said first, before any others could speak. "Crossfire, what are we doing here?"

Crossfire gazed disapprovingly at his friend, responding, "Need I remind you, it was your choice to share the information with Raizer about this location. Do not question me."

"I was mistaken," The gleaming mech said back, "I thought these were creatures of our own race, not bits of scrap."

"Excuse moi, Upender," I looked up to the mech I knew turned into a jet, "The intelligent creature you communicated with-"

"Raizer?" the tall mech glanced at me, "At least you have the sense to keep yourself in good condition. The rest of your buddies don't look fortunate enough to have been blessed with such processes."

"We were in a skirmish shortly before arriving," I defended those beneath me.

"So was I, but you don't see me scratched and dented," he gestured slightly. "And I won't even begin to imagine the poor, lowly creatures you were wrought with fighting. I went up against a set of jets – all armed, unlike myself. And I assure you the Air Force won't dare mess with me again."

"Well," I began to see how to reach him, "not everyone is gifted with an extreme passion for perfection."

He paused, looking around again, "Nor the talent to reach it." But he let it go and addressed the group as a whole. "In case you weren't paying attention, my name is Upender."

"Don't let our silence deceive you," Biosnare smiled up at him. "We aren't all just nuts and bolts."

I gave him a wary glance, but turned to Upender to see _his_ reaction.

The tall 'bot appeared unaffected until he took a quick step backwards. How could Biosnare have freaked him out? I heard a small weak screech as Upender knelt down to what he had stepped back onto – Graphe. "Think I'm all talk, do you, you venomous wreck?" Upender said coolly as he carefully picked up Graphe and thrusted him into Biosnare's chest armor.

"How did I let you talk me into that?" Graphe quietly screeched.

"Well, I'm impressed," Biosnare remarked to Seether and Vicegrip. He didn't have that obnoxious smile on his face for once though he was undoubtedly happy. "Welcome to the party."

"Oh, did Raizer have to suffer a rite of passage before he became your leader?" He turned from the green mech to stand up again. "Why have _you_ all banded together?" He came down to me. "Why do they follow you?" he asked me, bent over and obviously insatiably curious.

Upender was hovering over dangerous waters. I had never openly declared myself any sort of leader, though the others generally fulfilled any requests I made. I had to be careful if I wanted to retain or strengthen my position…. Staring intently back, I began my response: "Almost a week ago the humans learned they weren't evolution's greatest achievement, and their government deemed it appropriate to suppress any of us that would push that idea forward. Because of their sheer numbers, they got away with it – which is why we're stuck _here_." I emphasized my point by pointing at the cracked concrete on which I sat. The rich carpet that had once decorated this faux palace was long gone. "We are NOT their toys, and we are not subservient to them. The insects that infect this planet are a common problem we all share. When they once again presume to be the height of evolution, we'll easily prove them wrong, if organized correctly."

Upender watched me strongly as I finished, replying after a moments' thought. He stood up to his full height again, crossed his arms, and looked all around at us, lingering on Crossfire and ending on me. "Very well. I'm in."

-o-

_Cougar_

Grill: :Have you never been to a city of such a size?:

Cougar: :Well, nearly.:

Grill must have noticed me lagging behind as we entered into Mission City. I promptly caught up.

Cougar: :It's still so different though; it's definitely not home.:

Grill: :Did you feel the same way about Beau Vue, despite it's small population?:

Cougar: No. I think it's the crowding that gets me.:

Grill: :Perhaps.:

Our group, led by an undercover military vehicle, eventually got off the freeway and turned onto a less populated road, away from the direction I had been told we were to travel in. Confused, I nearly didn't follow. However, the front SUV stopped and someone got out (the one who questioned V), speaking normally to us. V's head popped out of Cam's window to listen. Some of the tail military vehicles stayed on the main road, albeit parked. Apparently they were some sort of guard.

"We've just received comm. From NAFB* – you'll recall that's where we were headed – that a group of your kind has been spotted nearby. Since we're all the closest, it was suggested that we confront them. We're taking the detour to the assaulted parts store."

"What do we do about it when we get there?" Cam asked before the man could reenter his vehicle.

The man paused. "Make sure they don't get violent. And if it's too late, you restrain them. Lastly, you have permission to use deadly force to save human lives."

No body said a word as we started on our new route. Once we were solidly moving though, the situation changed.

Cam cursed.

Camshaft: :What's happening?:

Camshaft: :What about Raizer? Are we just going to chase after whoever shows up?:

Cougar: :It's something we accepted by joining the military. The humans alone don't stand a much of a chance against any of our kind – so we help.:

Camshaft: :We probably won't even _know_ who these bots are!:

Grill: :Probably not. Therefore, we should take caution in facing him, or them.:

Cougar: :Right, let's not ruin any friendship before there's a chance at it.:

Camshaft: :Who am I supposed to listen to? Who am I supposed to follow when we get there? What do I do, exactly?:

Grill: :Camshaft, follow my lead, please.:

Camshaft: :Fine.:

The automotive store, as we neared it, showed obvious signs of violence: most of the roof had been removed, and not much remained whole of the parking lot, besides the three mechs there. One, a rusty orange color about the right size to be a compact car, held up a human and seemed to be speaking with him. Another – a garish pink – was digging through the building looking for something. The last sat on the ground behind the first, watching him.

The vehicles leading our group fanned out, and their personnel exited, one speaking loudly to the mechs.

"Put the man down."

The only reaction he received was the sitting mech's short glance at him.

The man who gave the order looked back at us and nodded – so we transformed. This got the attention of the other two mechs. The orange one who was holding the human let him fall and then proceeded to walk towards us, greeting and requesting, "Yo, yo, do you know where I could get any nitro?" The pink 'bot returned to searching through the building, scoffing.

"Nitro?" Cam murmured, "Nitrous oxide? The stuff that makes cars go faster?"

Grill shook his head at Cam then spoke to the new mech. "No, we don't know where you can get any nitro."

The mech slumped.

"Is that what you were doing here?" I asked, unsure.

"Well, yea, dawg, I was lookin' for some nitro, didn't I tell you that?"

"Yes, but–"

"-and what's-her-face over there lookin' for somethin'…forgot what."

"A halogen tube, you numbskull." A loud female voice called from the building. The pink 'bot looked up to speak, but afterwards was searching again, more vigorously.

"If you don't get her to stop, we'll have authority to fire," one of the men near me said at large.

"Excuse me," I called to the three new mechs, "please pause and explain to me what you're doing."

The girl mech** leaned against a bit of the structure still standing, looking expectantly at the orange mech. "Well, Shim, don't just stand there like an idiot. Introduce us."

-o-

End Chapter 11

*NAFB = Nellis Air Force Base

**Yes, I realize that's sort of an oxymoron. Cougar doesn't know about femmes though, XD


	12. Chapter 12: Lol, Wut?

Auth: Apologies for another long wait. Again, chapter's been done forever, but I was holding out hope for a second beta-reader to pop up. Still, I knew I had to relinquish this chapter eventually, so here it is. :)

* * *

Chapter 12: Lol, wut?

_For Aslan_

(~)/

"In this unending war,

I've lost so many brothers.

The coldest hours come before morning."

-"Field of Daggers" – House of Heroes

\|/

_Grill_

"Right! Right." The burnt orange transformer rubbed the rear of his head while looking back to the feminine sounding transformer. "Well, I'm…Shim. She's . . . ." He trailed off.

"How many times to I have to repeat it to you?" The pink transformer stepped forward and whapped Shim on the back of his now exposed head. "_Syrr_-ap! Sirap - how long until it gets through that thick helm of yours?"

"Look, I know your name, I just can't say it right, a'ight? And the last time I said it wrong –"

"You paid for it." The mech still sitting on the ground said simply.

"Ai, right, well-" Shim turned back to us from his previously quiet friend, "You know her name now, and mine, and him-" He pointed to whom had just interrupted him. The smaller, dirty, green mech sitting on the pavement finally stood. "His name's GP, I think."

"You think?" Cougar queried.

Shim looked back to the transformer he called GP and shrugged, asking, "That's it, isn't it?"

After a moment the 'bot responded, shaking his head slowly, "I never told you a name."

Everyone looked confused now, some of us, I'm sure, were simply at a loss for words. Encephylon barked, Cougar kneeling down to quiet him, only to find him pointing behind us. Cougar spun around, while I turned, and caught a glint of metal at the corner of a building nearly a block away, but that was it. He gave Encephylon one stroke then turned back to the conversation.

"You can call me that though," GP continued, "Or Pico, I don't care which."

Soon I heard a quiet but sharp intake of air, and looked back to Camshaft, who was quietly laughing. Noticing he'd caught my attention, he shook his head and pointed down to Viktor, standing beside him.

As far as I could tell, the boy mouthed, "Later," and pointed back to the couple of transformers we had intercepted. Camshaft regained his composure so I resumed studying the greater situation.

"I'm Cougar"

"Nice ta' meet cha'," Shim replied quietly.

"And what are you doing here?" Cougar brought up again.

"Nitro. I need nitro."

"Did you have no concern for anything else? The people…?"

"What d'you mean? We didn't hurt nobody."

"Oh, who _cares_, Shim, let's go. They're just here to crash the party…" Sirap tugged Shim's face towards her own and gave him a look – I quickly scanned available frequencies and found the one they were on, the one I sought, but almost too late: "…-er disappearances." They didn't want us to hear something.

"Right, let's go." Shim verbalized seriously and quietly, turning with Sirap to leave.

"Now what?"

I turned to face Camshaft, prepared to answer him. Out of nowhere it seemed, a single helicopter swooped down upon us, Shim and Sirap barely seeing it before taking off together. GP took a bit longer to react, but he too scrambled away, in a different direction. Upon further inspection, the helicopter proved not to be dangerous, beyond perhaps its newscaster camera equipment, which was quickly panning in our direction.

Cougar, thinking the quickest, said, so everyone could hear, "We'll meet up at our destination." A curt nod and a wave of my hand at Camshaft sent the Camaro off immediately, and a look back at the military personnel sent myself on a different route to hopefully dodge the news copter. Cougar I could hear taking off on all fours with Encephylon before transforming and his engine's noise fading beneath the helicopter's.

-o-

_Biosnare_

"You know what this place is missing?" I asked the little black mech standing before me, on the rim of the empty pool.

"Good décor," Graphe replied blandly, taking in our surroundings; the cracked, mostly exposed concrete wasn't the most fashionable, but it made for a sturdy home.

"Well, that too," I laughed, "but I was thinking more along the lines of getting a sort of…workshop going in here. You know, like back home." I winked at Graphe, who scowled. "I've had ideas about these little weapons I could use, filled with explosives, and shrapnel, spikes…or liquids…."

"What? Like water?"

"You have no imagination…I was thinking more along the lines of immediate abrasive corrosives."

He eyed me and after a moment asked, "Where are you going to get all of the stuff you need for this?"

"I brought some with me, from home - enough to figure out if my idea is functional or not. We can worry about more materials later."

"We? You're not planning on having my help in this are you?"

"Well I didn't just tell you to flaunt my idea, short circuit."

"No, no, no, I just know we're going to forget to calculate something, and then 'boom,' there goes the neighborhood."

"You have no faith either. C'mon, you'll be a lot of help for the small stuff, plus I know you're good at filching things from stores." He shook his head in denial. "Ha ha, whatever wires or whatnot that we're short on, we can get it without anyone being the wiser; and when we eventually get into a scuffle - as following Raizer and Seether and the rest is likely to lead into – you can hide away while I disintegrate our enemies with this product."

He took it all in. He took some time to finish thinking before replying. "No, just…no."

"Alright, well, I had other ideas too you know." Graphe looked at me suspiciously. "There's so much the humans could learn if they'd only be willing to test properly, instead of working on a different species and expecting a same result."

He seemed to be catching on. "No, I'm not helping with that either," he mentioned flatly.

"That's not that big of a problem. All it will need from you is to get a bit of food, if it sticks around long enough to need it."

"You have a perverted sense of humor."

"What? You think I'm doing this because I think it's funny?"

"You think everything is funny."

"That doesn't mean it's my whole goal in life."

"Fine, whatever. Do whatever you want. I'll just go hang around Crossfire instead."

"Good luck, you poor excuse for an electronic," I laughed.

"Yea," He started walking towards the exit which must seem very far away for him and his short, short legs, "Right."

_He'll be back._

-o-

_Camshaft_

"Have you seen Grill?" I whispered to Cougar right after he parked next to me where I had been waiting at a convenience store.

"No…" He sounded like he was thinking. "Perhaps he thought it unwise to park across from the main gate to the Air Force Base…maybe he chose a less used entrance?"

"Knowing him, he would," I said. "But we won't meet up with V or the military people by going somewhere remote."

"I'm sure they have enough resources to be able to- hey, that's one of their vehicles." He fired up his engine and got out on the street behind the undercover SUV very quick, then chirped his police siren at them.

I got out as soon as I could, but ended up a car or two behind them in the same lane to turn onto the base.

When the light changed and we turned onto the road leading to the gate, the guy in the truck leading us took a really long time talking to one of the gate guards. Eventually though, they passed through, Cougar in hot pursuit and waved through by the guard, then, once I got up there, I was allowed to pass through too though the guard looked a little unnerved, seeing no driver. As I followed, through the palm treed base, I tried to remember which truck V would be in, but got distracted as a jet took off. We were heading that way, towards the runway, I guess. Another one took off not a minute later, then another. They were all colored grey, and the roar was deafening, even though I didn't think we were that close. We passed a park, and a bunch of old buildings and apartments, none of which seemed to be higher than two stories. Then we turned into another gate, which had no guard. There was a warning sign attached to the brick wall on one side of the gate that said only authorized personnel were allowed on the runway. And when we parked, not a hundred feet later, I saw that we were right there, next to the flat, open runway now. We stopped in front of a huge, single-roomed building with nearly a whole wall as a door, which was open. Inside were jets. Outside were jets. In the air were jets. There really were a lot of them.

A little while after we parked, all the people in the truck leading us got out; most of them went into the big, one-roomed building, but one stayed behind and said, "The rest of the vehicles should be arriving shortly. And the Ford is supposed to be with one of them."

"Grill?" I asked.

The guy didn't reply; he just turned around and ran to catch up with the others.

"That was rude," Cougar remarked. "But I suppose it can't be helped. I suppose he's afraid or nervous."

That hurt. _Why?_ I sat and thought for a little while. "What do we do?"

"Are you getting bored?" Cougar asked.

"I dunno. Did they forget about us?"

"Not likely. I imagine they weren't planning to split up from their superior any more than we were planning on splitting after that news chopper showed up."

"Speaking of which, do you think they saw us?"

"I don't think it's a question of whether _they_ saw us, but whether or not they caught us on camera or not. I've been monitoring their website and nothing has appeared yet though. Perhaps the other military folk settled it with them, and that's why they're taking so long to get here."

"Why's it so bad if they see us anyway? V gets to see us. All those people in Beau Vue saw us. And then there was the fight in the middle of the city. Why'd they lie about what happened? _How'd_ they lie if it was in the middle of the city?"

He took a while to answer. "I don't presume to have the right answers, but my best guess is that it has something to do with their – our relatives – war. It's also not a coincidence we blend in so well. It's only natural that we hide. And, I don't know."

"I don't like _always_ being a Camaro though. I like being taller than V."

Cougar made a weird, loud noise. Encephylon, inside him, jumped and barked. "…I'm sorry, that was funny. Why? Don't you like being more aerodynamic than me?"

"Well, sure, if I were a V8 I might be fast. But I'm not. I'm just a little annoying, practically stock V6 who gets in the way all the time."

Cougar waited to answer again, but he was serious when he did. "Who told you that?"

I weighed whether or not to answer…If I told him it had been Raizer, he might lecture me on talking with him, so: "No one."

"Well, don't listen to it. You're still a Camaro aren't you? Who cares if you're a V6. That's more than other cars can say."

"I guess so, but, you know, I found out they're releasing a new generation of Camaro soon. I'm going to be _old_."

"Why are you so concerned all of a sudden?"

". . . ."

"Well, stop being so negative. You're not as old as Grill, you're not as old as probably any of the jets around us, and at least there _will be_ a next generation of Camaro. You're part of a long history of cars."

"…you know we have a rivalry with Ford."

"And yet here we are, a Ford Explorer, and Grill, a Ford F-series, getting along with a Chevrolet Camaro."

I would've smiled, had I been able to, as a car. "You guys are real pals, you know that? I wonder if this would've turned out the same, if either of you were a Mustang."

"I dunno. If it were a Shelby, probably not."

Then we started laughing.

-o-

_Crossfire_

Upender was out. Raizer was out as well. Seether had retired to his dark space. Vicegrip was just outside the façade of our building, in car mode. And yet Biosnare, who had been in his room all day, had found some way to get injured.

"What is this?" I inspected the damaged left arm in front of me, smoke and debris covering parts of his chest armor, and bits of shrapnel falling out from the hurt appendage.

"Tis but a flesh wound," Biosnare said with an accent, quickly. "Pay no heed to it." Then he went back to normal speech. "Can I have Graphe?"

"Why? What did you do to yourself?"

Graphe sat upon my shoulder, pointing and laughing quietly, albeit animatedly, at Biosnare.

"What I _did_ was found out I actually need him for something." He whistled, "Come here boy!"

The small black mech on me stopped laughing immediately and folding two of his arms, two more on his back flapping beside his head in a mocking gesture that said, "Come and get me if you can."

Unamused, I picked up Graphe by his scruff, very much to his surprise, and hung him over Biosnare, who looked up and held out both his main arms eagerly, the damaged one sparking, to catch the calculator. "I would give him to you, if I weren't concerned for his well-being."

"No worries," Biosnare said jovially, "If I have him, this won't happen again." He gestured to his wounded arm, more debris and shrapnel falling from it as he moved.

I looked at Graphe, who had his greater forearms together, looking like he was begging me, "no."

I looked back down to Biosnare, who grinned stupidly. "Only if you let me take a look at your arm," I concluded. I had no intention of fixing it, but I would be better prepared for future experiences if I had a look at him.

Quickly, the Eclipse held out his injured arm.

I placed Graphe back on my shoulder and told him to wait there and watch while I went ahead and removed the blades from behind either of my hands, setting them beside me. For a moment Graphe had appeared worried that I would be using them. Once my hands were free, I held up Biosnare's arm to inspect it. Now I noticed all the dust that covered him, in addition to the dark splotches of smoke on his torso and upper body. "What were you doing?"

"Having fun," the Mitsubishi replied innocently.

I continued inspecting it until I was satisfied I had gleaned all the information I was going to get without beginning to actually work on him.

"Ok, you're free to go," I said dryly, releasing him and going for Graphe.

"No, please," he cried, crawling down my back and taking off to the exit of the large room.

"He's all yours," I said blandly to Biosnare as I reattached my blades.

The Mitsubishi took off after him murmuring, "C'mon, it won't blow up if you do it right…"

-o-

_Beeper_

*Cam: Nest? How'd they come up with that for a name?

Grill: It was an acronym, you'll recall.

Cam: Really? I must've missed that.

Cam: Hey! Beeper! Thanks for setting up this weird encrypted thing for us.

Cam: I was getting really tired of just SITTING there.

Beeper: No problem. I bet it will be useful in the future. I'll leave it open and online for when we need it, unless someone finds out about it.

Grill: It would be wise to change the address often, to avoid unwanted eavesdroppers.

Beeper: Oh! Right! Well, I can just have it open when we need it then, and contact me to set up and get the address, alright?

Grill: I'll keep that in mind. Thank you.

Cam: But we can still use it now though, right?

Beeper: Of course. There's no reason to close it. We're just making small talk.

Cam: Grill, you still there?

Cam: Guess not. Oh well. What was he going to say about nest?

Grill: N.E.S.T. It's an acronym, I told you.

Cam: Hey! I thought you were gone!

Grill: I don't have to reply to everything you say. Now, did you want to know what it stood for, or not?

Cam: No, that's ok.

Beeper: This is fun. I get to listen to you rabble and I don't even have to be in the room or on a frequency.

Cam: Rabble?

Grill: Beeper shouldn't have used it.

Beeper: You would be glaring at me right about now, huh Grill?

Cam: Ok…. Where are you at now, Beeper?

Beeper: I don't know. I'm in V's pocket. We're still somewhere in that building we entered about twenty minutes ago.

Cam: Aren't you supposed to be learning all about the base and stuff though?

Grill: Don't mention anything that could give away important information, Camshaft. That's your warning. Don't let any more slip.

Beeper: I can still hear the people, Cam.

Beeper: In fact, I think it's better if I don't see them.

Cam: Still scared?

Cam: C'mon, you can answer. It's not like I'm going to tell anybody.

I disposed of the address.

After waiting patiently for a while, I finally heard our guide say: "And you'll be staying in here; at least, for tonight."

"Alright, I could use some sleep," V responded.

"You look it," the other person replied. "Someone will be by tomorrow at seven to pick you up and debrief you further."

"Seven…in the morning?" V asked.

"Yes." They said candidly.

"Alright," V slurred his word.

"They'll expect to find you here."

"Right." V sounded bored or tired, I couldn't tell which.

"Good; here you go. Have a good evening." They finally walked away.

"G'night," V said just loud enough to be heard, then I heard what was probably a door opening.

Soon I was squashed in the pocket, and couldn't hear. I beeped and poked V strongly to remind him I was there. He pulled me out and I transformed the rest of the way so I could jump off his hand and onto the nearby table with a lamp on top of it, though the room was dark. Once I was on the solid surface I turned to face V with my arms akimbo, and an angry face on. All he had to say was:

"I wonder if they'll make me go back to school?" And then he was unconscious, lying down.

I spent most of the night on the internet, looking at whatever caught my fancy. The majority of that time was used up reading and responding to posts about the "Mission City Incident," as it had been dubbed.

I found great interest in how people were reacting to the story they were given. They argued amongst themselves about whether the story was true or not, and even whether or not we – the Transformers – even existed, even though there were many eyewitnesses. The biggest issue concerned in the latter topic was whether we actually _transformed_ or not. Did the people think they just imagined a plane while they were running away, and then when they looked back it was a bipedal robot? Or maybe the robot, previously invisible (hey, I didn't come up with it), had destroyed the plane. It was an absolute crazed mess. Some of the people were obviously incorrect, saying we simply appeared out of nowhere instead of transforming from one thing into another or even using stealth, but other claims were plausible, though there were many contradictions all around. Since we hadn't been told what happened since getting on the Air Force Base, I figured I could figure it out for myself. But now, after looking at the mass of [mis]information that was available, I had to admit to being daunted. How many of us were actually there? How did the fight play out? It was like watching a bunch of shots of film from a hundred different angles at once, all playing at different speeds, and being played out of order. I couldn't make heads or tails of what had happened at first.

With time though, I was able to discern that there was at least one of each yellow, red & blue, tan (the one Cam, Grill, and V saw just after our awakening, I can tell), and darker colored 'bots. That's at least four. Then I had figured out that there was more than one darker colored mech, and a silver one, along with one that some were arguing whether it was yellow or green. So there had to be at least six, now, though now I was beginning to see how some could believe it was a hoax. How could there be that many of us in site yet still have our existence questioned?

-o-

*This style of message marks one of Beeper's new methods of communication, which relies on the internet. It involves data sent to users currently on an otherwise encrypted address; it's a little bit like an FTP. As such, users normally sign their messages, though it's not required. Anything without a signature will appear as "!Anonymous!:" to emphasize which method it's being sent over. There is no hosting done of the information, and so no history. You receive what pops up while you're on the address. Of course, there's no way for you to know who's on the address with you and receiving the information, so it could be eavesdropped without detection, if they can get their hands on the address and decipher the encryption.


End file.
